Effects of dietary taurine on egg production, egg quality and cholesterol levels in Japanese quail

BACKGROUND: Taurine is a semi-essential amino acid and has many biological properties. The objective of this study was to determine the effect of dietary supplementation with taurine on egg production, egg quality, and cholesterol level in serum and egg yolk of quails. A total of 108 quails aged 6 weeks were randomly allocated to three dietary treatments. Each treatment consisted of four replicates of nine quails. The diets were supplemented with 0, 100, and 500 mg kg(-1) of taurine for 8 weeks. RESULTS: Dietary 500 mg kg(-1) taurine significantly affected egg production rate and feed conversion ratio, but had no significant effects on body weight gain, feed consumption, or egg weight. Dietary taurine had no significant effect on egg quality parameters studied. Serum triglyceride concentration was reduced significantly with supplementation of taurine at 100 and 500 mg kg(-1). Egg yolk cholesterol content was reduced significantly, and the contents of serum taurine and egg yolk taurine were increased significantly with taurine supplementation at 500 mg kg(-1). CONCLUSION: Results of the present study indicated that adding 500 mg kg(-1) taurine reduced yolk cholesterol concentration and increased yolk taurine content without adverse effects on performance and egg quality of laying quails. (C) 2010 Society of Chemical Industry