• Journal of Animal Science and Technology
• /
• v.44 no.1
• /
• pp.45-54
• /
• 2002

This study was conducted to evaluate the feeding value of ascidian tunic shell the effects of its dietary supplementation on laying performance, egg-yolk pigmentation, egg-shell strength and egg taurine content. A total of 168 brown layers at the age of 29wks in commercial cage were fed for 4 wks with 7 different diets containing ascidian tunic shel1(AST) at varying levels of 0$\sim$5% Dm or 0% AST with 100ppm carophyll red. No differences were found in egg production and weight among the treatments indicating that ascidian tunic shell did not adversely affect the laying performances. Adding the ascidian tunic shell to the diets increased egg-yolk pigmentation compared to the control and resulted in simillar or better effect on egg-yolk pigmentation compared to 100ppm carophyll red. The data suggest that ascidian tunic shell may be used as feed ingredients in layer diet enrichment of egg-yolk pigmentation in the place of carophyll red(chemical pigment). Specific gravity and breaking strength of egg shell were significantly increased by the adding ascidian tunic shell to the diet, suggesting that ascidian tunic shell may be used as feed ingredients for increasing egg shell strength. Also taurine content of egg was significantly increased with increasing supplementation of ascidian tunic shell to the diet(p<0.05). Therefore, ascidian tunic shell may be used as feed ingredients in laying hen diet to improve egg quality such as egg-yolk pigmentation, egg-shell strength and egg taurine enrichment.