Veterinary Research Forum
Vet Res Forum

The effect of L-carnitine supplementation in diets containing fish oil on performance, egg quality traits and egg yolk fatty acid profile in aged laying hens

Articles in Press

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

Ali Mahdi dhihab 1
Seyyed Ali Mirghelenj 2
Mohsen Daneshyar 3
Hamed Khalilvandi Behroozyar 4

1 Department of Animal Science, Urmia University, Urmia, Iran.

2 Department of Animal Science, Faculty of Agriculture, Urmia University, Urmia, Iran

3 Professor, Department of Animal Science, Urmia University, Urmia, Iran.

4 Associate Professor, Department of Animal Science, Urmia University, Urmia, Iran.

10.30466/vrf.2025.2055505.4694
Abstract
The present study was conducted to investigate the effect of L-carnitine (LC) supplementation in diets containing different levels of fish oil (FO) on performance, egg quality parameters and egg yolk fatty acids (FAs) profile in aged laying hens. In this study, 432 laying hens (Hy-line-W36, 65 weeks of age) were used allocated in a 3 × 3 factorial design with 6 replications and 8 birds per replication. The experimental treatments included diets containing 3 levels of FO (0, 1.5 and 3% of the diet) and 3 levels of LC (0, 300 and 600 mg/kg of the diet). The results showed that hens treated with 3% FO and 300 and 600 mg LC had the highest egg production rate, egg weight and egg mass, which was significantly higher than the treatments without FO and LC. With increasing usage level of FO to 3% of diet, egg yolk pH decreased significantly (p <0.05), however, yolk pH increased when diet supplemented with 600 mg LC. The percentage of polyunsaturated FAs (PUFA), the ratio of PUFA/saturated FAs (SFA) and the percentage of omega-3 FAs increased significantly with increasing FO usage level in the diet (p <0.05). Therefore, the use of LC in a diet containing FO not only increased egg production performance and egg internal quality (Haugh unit and yolk color) of aged laying hens, but also increased the production and deposition of omega-3 FAs in egg yolk.

Keywords

L-carnitine
Fish oil
Fatty acid profile
omega-3
Laying hens
Subjects
Veterinary Research Forum

Articles in Press, Accepted Manuscript
Available Online from 03 June 2026

  • Receive Date 12 April 2025
  • Revise Date 28 June 2025
  • Accept Date 19 July 2025

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