Hempseed Products Fed to Hens Effectively Increased n-3 Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids in Total Lipids, Triacylglycerol and Phospholipid of Egg Yolk.

Hempseed products represent potential alternative feed ingredients for poultry. However, their usage is not currently approved due to a lack of data to support their safety and efficacy. In this regard, the current study was conducted to assess the impact of dietary concentration of hempseed (HS) products and duration of their feeding to hens on the polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) composition of egg yolk lipids. In the current study, 48 Lohmann LSL-Classic hens were individually housed in metabolism cages, in a completely randomized design, and provided one of six diets (wheat-barley-soybean-based) containing either HS (10, 20 and 30 %), hempseed oil (HO; 4.5 and 9.0 %) or no hempseed product (control) over 12 weeks. Increasing alpha-linolenic acid (ALA) intake via increasing dietary hempseed product inclusion, significantly (p < 0.0001) increased the n-3 PUFA contents of yolk total lipid. The values of ALA increased by 12-fold (152 ± 3.56 and 156 ± 2.42 mg/yolk) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) by twofold to threefold (41.3 ± 1.57 and 43.6 ± 1.61 mg/yolk) over the control, for the highest levels of HS and HO inclusion, respectively. Increasing levels of hemp products in laying hen diets proved effective in manipulating the fatty acid profile of the total lipid, triacylglycerol (TAG) and total phospholipid (PL) fractions of yolks, enhancing the n-3 fatty acids and reducing the n-6/n-3 ratio. The latter benefit was achieved within 4 weeks of feeding hens either HS- or HO-containing diets.