Artigo

animal

Animal (2007), 1: Pages 477–482 Q The Animal Consortium 2007 doi: 10.1017/S1751731107685048

Cholesterol and iron availability in yolk of laying hens feed with annatto (Bixa orellana)
M. N. C. Harder1†, S. G. Canniatti-Brazaca1, A. A. D. Coelho2, V. J. M. Savino2 and C. F. O. Franco3
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Department of Agri-Food Industry, Food and Nutrition, Escola Supeiror de Agricultura ‘Luiz de Queiroz’ of the University of Sao Paulo, Av. Padua Dias, 11, zip mail
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13418-900, Piracicaba-SP, Brazil; 2Department of Genetics, Escola Supeiror de Agricultura ‘Luiz de Queiroz’ of the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil; 3Empresa Estadual
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de Pesquisa Agropecuaria da Paraıba - Joao Pessoa, PA, Brazil
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(Received 9 May 2006; Accepted 8 November 2006)

Pigmented egg yolks are more attractive. Popular culture treats annatto as a powerful anticholesterolemic agent, besides being widely used in the form of industry pigment. This work evaluated the effects of the addition of annatto (Bixa orellana L.) in the feed of hens, verifying a possible alteration of cholesterol in the yolks, content of carotenes, and iron and available iron, over time. One hundred and twenty-five hens divided in control (0% - T1) and four annatto-added treatments (0.5% - T2; 1.0% - T3;
1.5% - T4, and 2.0% - T5) were used. Eggs were collected at 23, 25, 27, 29 and 30 weeks. The animals were randomly separated into five groups of five animals each. The cholesterol was measured by the colorimetric method, vitamin A (b and a carotene) by spectrophotometry, total iron by atomic absorption spectrophotometry, and dialysable iron by dialysis. Tukey’s test was used at the
5% level for comparison of the averages. Regarding cholesterol, treatments T2 and T3 did not differ significantly. However, other treatments differed ( P # 0.05) from the control, decreasing the cholesterol level as the percentage of annatto in the feed increased. In time, there was a significant increase ( P # 0.05). For b