EFFECT OF DIETARY ASPIRIN ON LAYING PERFORMANCES AND EGG YOLK FATTY ACID COMPOSITION IN JAPANESE QUAIL

In avian species, addition of aspirin to the diet was shown to improve the egg production and to elevate the proportion of essential fatty acid contents in several body tissues. This study was conducted to investigate the effect of dietary aspirin on the accumulation of essential fatty acids in egg yolk. Laying Japanese quail at 170 days of age were fed practical diets supplemented with graded levels (0, 0.4 and 0.8%) of aspirin for 2 weeks. There were no significant differences in final body weight and liver weight. Food intake and egg weight on the 0.8% aspirin diet were significantly lower than those on the 0 or 0.4% aspirin diet. In the liver and egg yolk lipids, the 16:0 in birds fed the 0.8% aspirin diet was significantly higher than that in birds fed the aspirin-free diet. However, the proportion of n-6 poly-unsaturated fatty acids was not affected by feeding aspirin diets.