Abstract
The purpose of this experiment was to study the effect of feeding winged bean (Psophocarpus tetragonolobus) oil on egg cholesterol and fatty acid of Japanese quail. Four groups of 10-week-old Japanese quails (n=10 per group) were fed a basal diet (20% CP, 2890 kcal/kg) supplemented with 5% of either animal tallow, soybean oil, corn oil or winged bean oil over an 8-week period. At the end of the experiment, 7 birds in each treatment were killed by decapitation. Blood samples and livers were collected for cholesterol analyses. There were no significant differences in final body weight, feed intake, egg production, egg and yolk weight due to the different oil treatments. Egg and plasma cholesterol levels obtained with the winged bean oil diet were higher than those obtained with the animal tallow or soybean oil diets, but were not significantly different from those obtained with com oil diet. Egg lipid, liver lipid and liver cholesterol content was lower with the winged bean oil diet than with the animal tallow diet. It may be concluded that the winged bean oil diet did not impair laying performance, but increased egg and plasma cholesterol levels compared with soybean oil or animal tallow diets. Winged bean oil diet produced eggs with a higher oleic content and lower linoleic content compared with the soybean or com oil diet.