title: Effect of different vitamin D supplementations in poultry feed on vitamin D content of eggs and chicken meat.
abstract: According to a new European Union regulation, vitamin D(3) can be partially or totally substituted with 25-hydroxyvitamin D(3) (25-OH-D(3)) in hens' feed. The purpose of this study was to clarify how this regulation has affected the vitamin D content of commercial eggs and chicken meat. Another aim was to investigate how effectively 25-OH-D(3) is transferred from the hens' diet to egg yolk by analyzing eggs from farms using known commercial feeds and by conducting an animal study. Vitamin D determinations were made by HPLC methods. The vitamin D(3) contents of two commercial egg yolk pools were 4.9 ± 0.14 and 4.0 ± 0.10 μg/100 g, and the 25-OH-D(3) contents were 1.3 ± 0.19 and 1.0 ± 0.07 μg/100 g. The chicken meat pools contained 0.2-0.3 μg of vitamin D(3)/100 g, whereas the content of 25-OH-D(3) was ≤0.2 μg/100 g. These results are comparable to earlier data. The animal and farm studies showed that 25-OH-D(3) was effectively transferred from the hens' diet to yolk. However, because the relative activity between 25-OH-D(3) and vitamin D(3) is unknown, it remains questionable whether the use of 25-OH-D(3) in hens' feed is beneficial to human vitamin D intake from eggs.
authors.affiliation: Biotechnology and Food Research, MTT Agrifood Research Finland, Jokioinen, Finland. pirjo.mattila@mtt.fi
authors.forename: Pirjo H
authors.initials: PH
authors.lastname: Mattila
authors.forename: Eija
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Valkonen
authors.forename: Jarmo
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Valaja
mesh_terms: D000821:Animal Feed / Q000032:analysis*; D000818:Animals; D002645:Chickens / Q000378:metabolism*; D002762:Cholecalciferol / Q000032:analysis / Q000378:metabolism*; D019587:Dietary Supplements / Q000032:analysis; D004531:Eggs / Q000032:analysis*; D005260:Female; D008297:Male; D008460:Meat / Q000032:analysis*
chemical_list: D002762:Cholecalciferol