Influence of egg consumption and energy level on performance, and livability of layers and upon cholesterol levels of blood, egg yolk and other body tissues

Abstract

Clinicians recommend a low cholesterol diet for patients with certain heart and vascular disorders. These recommendations have sometime inadvisedly led to rejection of nutritious foods such as eggs. Since vascular cholesterol deposition for people with abnormal cholesterol metabolism is thought to be greater on high calorie diets, two dietary calorie levels were used in an experiment involving the feeding of various levels of dried whole eggs to one-hundred-sixty commercial incrossbred laying type pullets. The basal diets had the same calorie/protein ratio of 58:1. They consisted of a low energy diet containing 932 kilocalories of productive energy providing 16.05% protein and a high energy diet with 6.85% added vegetable fat to increase the total calorie level to 1032 kilocalories of productive energy and providing 17.76% protein. The two basal diets were supplemented with whole egg solids equivalent to the consumption of 1, 2, 4, and 10 eggs per man per day, respectively, on a body weight basis. The experiment was continued for twelve 28-day periods. Performance records were kept on a daily basis and periodically blood and egg yolk cholesterol determinations were made. At the termination of the performance phase, the accumulative effects of the dietary treatments on hatchability were tested. At the end, the remaining birds were sacrificed and the aortas were scored for atherosclerotic lesions. The aortas and the liver tissues were analyzed for cholesterol concentrations. ...