Dynamics of thymol dietary supplementation in quail: assesing changes on free thymol concentration in egg yolk and faeces, yolk fatty acids and female performance

TARTAGLINI L; MARIN RH; M C LÁBAQUE; FERNANDEZ ME; KEMBRO JM

Campinas

Congreso; 2nd Latin American Scientific Conference; 2018

Poultry Science Association

Phytogenic additives such as thymol (THY) are encountering growing interest in poultry production. Measuring bioavailability of supplemented compounds is a key element for understanding how they modulate beneficial effects on animal body. Herein, we simultaneously assessed changes in THY concentration and total fatty acids (FA) of the egg yolk induced along 28d of THY dietary supplementation (DS) and 21d after discontinuation of supplementation (AS). THY eliminated through faeces, female performance and physical characteristics of eggs were also monitored in both DS and AS periods. Fifty adult female quail were randomly assigned to 1 of 5 dietary treatments: CON (basal diet), VEH (basal diet + ethanol), THY2, 4 and 6.25 (basal diet + 2, 4, 6.25g of thymol/kg of feed, respectively). THY concentration in egg yolk and faeces was determined at 2, 9, 16, 26d of DS and 17d AS. Female performance and characteristics of eggs were measured at 0, 7, 14, 28d of S and 21d AS. GLMMs and Fisher tests were used to detect differences at P