# Enriching Egg Quality of Laying Hens from the Canary Islands by Feeding with Echium Oil

## TL;DR

Feeding laying hens from the Canary Islands with Echium oil improves egg quality by enriching it with beneficial fatty acids without affecting taste.

## Contribution

This study demonstrates the potential of Echium oil as a local, functional feed ingredient for enhancing egg nutritional value.

## Key findings

- Echium oil increased deposition of n-3 LC-PUFA like SDA, EPA, DPA, and DHA in egg yolks.
- Echium oil lowered the n-6/n-3 ratio and thrombogenic index in eggs.
- Egg sensory traits were unaffected by Echium oil supplementation.

## Abstract

Echium species, abundant in the Canary Islands, contain unique fatty acids (FA) such as stearidonic acid (SDA; 18:4n-3) and γ-linolenic acid (GLA; 18:3n-6), which may improve egg quality while valorizing local genetic resources. This study evaluated the effects of Echium plantaegineum oil (EO) compared with linseed oil (LO) and soybean oil (SO) on productive performance, egg quality, sensory traits, and yolk fatty acid profile. Forty-eight hens from the Canary Islands were fed for 31 days with diets supplemented with 1.25% SO (SO-d), 1.1% LO + 0.15% beef tallow (LO-d), and 1% EO + 0.25% LO (EO-d). LO supplementation reduced laying rate and egg mass with respect to SO, increasing feed conversion ratio (FCR), whereas EO produced slightly lighter eggs compared to the SO group but with normal yolk proportion and shell traits. EO markedly increased egg yolk deposition of SDA, eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA; 20:5n-3), docosapentaenoic acid (n-3 DPA; 22:5n-3), and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA; 22:6n-3), while lowering the n-6/n-3 ratio and thrombogenic index (TI). No differences were observed in the evaluated sensory attributes among treatments. In conclusion, dietary inclusion of EO effectively enriches eggs with n-3 LC-PUFA without negatively affecting sensory quality, supporting its potential use as a functional ingredient in laying hen diets.