Comparative evaluation of selenium yeast and sodium selenite supplementation on egg production and egg selenium deposition in layers Dodamani P.1, Malathi V.2,*, Deepthi V.1, Jayanaik2, Jolapure A.M.1 1Department of Livestock Production Management, Veterinary College, Bangalore, KVAFSU, Karnataka, India 2Department of Poultry Science, Veterinary College, Bangalore, KVAFSU, Karnataka, India *Correspondence: drmalathiprasadreddy@rediffmail.com
Online published on 20 May, 2023. Abstract The effect of selenium yeast and its combination with sodium selenite on laying hens’ production performance, egg quality, and selenium enrichment were evaluated in this experiment. Dual purpose Giriraja (200) were randomly divided into 4 groups having 5 replicates of 10 (9 females+1 male) birds each. The treatment groups included T1 (control diet without selenium), T2 (control diet + sodium selenite @ 0.5mg/kg diet), T3 (control + sodium selenite @ 0.3mg/kg diet + selenium yeast @ 0.2mg/kg diet) and T4 (control diet+ selenium yeast @ 0.5mg/kg diet). The experiment was for 8 weeks starting from 30 weeks of age. 150 g feed per bird every day and 16h light schedule was followed. Egg production performance, egg quality parameters, and egg selenium deposition were recorded. Supplementation of different sources of selenium alone and their combination did not show significant difference in production performance viz., weekly hen housed egg production and feed conversion ratio per dozen eggs and also egg quality parameters. Significantly higher (P<0.05) egg selenium content was observed in the selenium yeast supplemented group in the fourth and eighth weeks of the trial. In the eighth week, the combination group's egg selenium content was significantly greater (P<0.05) than that of the sodium selenite supplemented group. In conclusion, selenium supplementation was not beneficial to production performance as selenium present in the feed raw material was sufficient to meet the requirement of layer (0.05–0.08mg/kg diet). Nevertheless, addition of selenium was useful to fortify the egg. Though combination showed significant improvement compared to inorganic but the deposition was not as efficient as organic alone. Hence, the addition of organic sources alone is a better option to produce selenium enriched eggs. Top Keywords Egg production, Egg quality, Egg selenium, Laying hens, Selenium yeast. Top |