Abstract:

Objective: In this study, the effects of the addition of lycopene (LY), lutein (LU), and zeaxanthin (ZE), which are used as pigments in laying hens, on the color of egg yolk, performance, and egg quality criteria were investigated. Materials and Methods: In the study, 192 white laying hens at 40 weeks of age were randomly divided into 4 groups with 16 replicates each, and the control (C) group fed diet without any pigments was compared with the groups consuming diets added 80 ppm of LY, LU or ZE. On the 15th and 30th days of the study, performance and egg quality criteria were measured and the effects of pigments on these parameters were examined. Results: There was no significant effect of adding pigments in terms of live weight, feed consumption, egg yield, and feed conversation ratio (P>0.05). When egg weight was examined, LY gave the highest values on the 15th day and LU on the 30th day (P<0.05). While there was no significant difference between the groups in terms of white and yellow indexes and Haugh unit on the 15th day of the study; adding LY to the diet significantly increased (P<0.05) the Haugh unit on the 30th day. In terms of yellow color, ZE gave the highest value on the 15th day, followed by the LU and LY groups. On the 30th day, the highest yellow color value was determined with the addition of ZE and LU (P<0.05). The use of pigments caused significant differences in L*, a*, and b* values in egg yolk (P<0.05). Shell quality criteria such as shell thickness and strength were not affected by the use of color materials (P> 0.05). Conclusion: As a result, adding pigments to the diet improves egg yolk color and Haugh unit.

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