Effects of dietary taurine on egg production, egg quality and cholesterol levels in Japanese quail.
BACKGROUND
Taurine is a semi-essential amino acid and has many biological properties. The objective of this study was to determine the effect of dietary supplementation with taurine on egg production, egg quality, and cholesterol level in serum and egg yolk of quails. A total of 108 quails aged 6 weeks were randomly allocated to three dietary treatments. Each treatment consisted of four replicates of nine quails. The diets were supplemented with 0, 100, and 500 mg kg(-1) of taurine for 8 weeks.


RESULTS
Dietary 500 mg kg(-1) taurine significantly affected egg production rate and feed conversion ratio, but had no significant effects on body weight gain, feed consumption, or egg weight. Dietary taurine had no significant effect on egg quality parameters studied. Serum triglyceride concentration was reduced significantly with supplementation of taurine at 100 and 500 mg kg(-1). Egg yolk cholesterol content was reduced significantly, and the contents of serum taurine and egg yolk taurine were increased significantly with taurine supplementation at 500 mg kg(-1).


CONCLUSIONS
Results of the present study indicated that adding 500 mg kg(-1) taurine reduced yolk cholesterol concentration and increased yolk taurine content without adverse effects on performance and egg quality of laying quails.
Wang
Fu-Rong
FR
State Key Laboratory of Food Science and Technology, School of Food Science and Technology, Jiangnan University, Jiangsu Wuxi, China.
Dong
Xiao-Fang
XF
Zhang
Xiao-Ming
XM
Tong
Jian-Ming
JM
Xie
Zhong-Guo
ZG
Zhang
Qi
Q
D000821:Animal Feed; D000818:Animals; D002784:Cholesterol / Q000032:analysis* / Q000097:blood; D003370:Coturnix / Q000097:blood / Q000378:metabolism; D019587:Dietary Supplements; D004530:Egg Yolk / Q000737:chemistry*; D004531:Eggs / Q000592:standards; D013654:Taurine / Q000097:blood / Q000378:metabolism / Q000494:pharmacology*; D014280:Triglycerides / Q000097:blood*
D014280:Triglycerides; D013654:Taurine; D002784:Cholesterol