comparison of different selenium sources and vitamin e in laying hen diet and their influences on egg selenium and cholesterol content, quality and oxidative stability

an experiment was carried out to compare the effects of laying hen’s diet supplemented with inorganic and different organic sources of selenium (se) on quality and oxidative stability of eggs during storage. a total of 81, (35-week old) laying hens of lohmann lsl-white were assigned to cages in a completely randomized design with 9 groups of treatment and 3 replicates of 3 birds. hens in each group were fed their corresponded diet included the basal diet supplemented with sodium selenite, se-enriched yeast, cytoplex-selenium and selenomax at two different levels of 0.3 and 0.6 mg/kg, or 200 mg/kg vitamin e. to prevent brand judgment challenge, a, b and c letters were applied for different organic source of se. after 56 days of feeding experimental diets, eggs were collected from the hens to analysis. egg weight loss during storage at 4 ˚c was lower (p<0.05) in the group fed 0.3 mg of b source se/kg of feed. vitamin e and se supplemented groups had lower malondialdehyde values than those from the non-supplemented (p<0.01). the c source of organic se resulted in lower malondialdehyde compared with the other sources of se or control. the supplementation of se in diet increased (p<0.01) yolk se concentration, with the effect being more significant by c source of se. selenium and vitamin e supplementation decreased serum and yolk cholesterol content (p<0.01). the results demonstrate the better efficacy of the c source of organic se to increase se deposition in egg and improved egg quality compared with the other sources of se.