Seyed  Mohammad Motamedi, 
    Egg Quality Characteristics, Serum and Egg Yolkcholesterolin Laying Hens,
    Veterinary Research,
    Volume 7,Issue 4,
    2014,
    Pages 40-45,
    ISSN 1993-5412,
    vr.2014.40.45,
    (https://makhillpublications.co/view-article.php?doi=vr.2014.40.45)
    Abstract: A study was conducted to evaluate the effects of ground fenugreek seeds given to laying hens at 0
(FS0), 0.5 (FS0.5), 1 (FS1) or 2 (FS2) g/hen/d on laying performance, egg quality characteristics, serum and
egg yolk cholesterol concentrations. An experiment was performed as completely randomized layout with four
treatments and four replications. One hundred and ninety-two, 49-week-old, (bovans strain) laying hens (48
hens per treatment) were fed for 12 weeks 100 g days<sup>&#150;1</sup> of a basal diet in addition to the specified ground
fenugreek seeds amounts. While FS2 showed highest body weight loss at the end ofthe experiment (112.6 for
FS2 vs. 29.7, 27.5and 99.10 g/hen for FS0, FS0.5 and FS1, respectively) there were no differences
amongtreatment groups for daily feed intake (98.2, 101.4, 102.4 and 103.1 g/hen for FS0, FS0.5, FS1
and FS2, respectively), hen-day layingrate (81.17% for FS0 to 78.60% for SF2), eggweight (82.04 g for FS1
to 79.82 g for FS0.5), eggmass (49.13 g/hen/d for FS2 to 51.21 g/hen/dfor FS0), feed efficiency (feed
intake/eggmass, 1.95 for FS0 to 2.19 for FS2) and egg quality characteristics. Shell weight variedfrom 8.20 g
for FS0 to 8.46 g for FS1. Shell thickness varied from 0.97 mm for FS2 to 0.99mm for FS0.5. Yolk weight
ranged from 16.8 gfor FS2 to 16.74 G for FS0. Albumen weight ranged from 37.28 g for FS1 to 38.90 g for
FS0.5. Inclusion of ground fenugreek seeds reduced blood serum cholesterol from 104.3-84.7, 93.7 and 87.2
mg dL<sup>&#150;1</sup> for FS0.5, FS1 and FS2, respectively. It did not affect egg yolk cholesterol (21.75 mg g<sup>&#150;1</sup> for FS2 to
22.88 mg g<sup>&#150;1</sup> for FS0). It can be concluded that groundfenugreek seeds given to bovanslaying hens at up to 2
g/hen/d had no effect onfeed intake, laying production performance andegg quality but reduced hen&#146;s serum.
    Keywords: Fenugreek seed;yolk cholesterol;seeds;laying hens;egg qualitative traits