n-3 fatty acids fed to ISA brown and Shaver white breeders and their female progeny during rearing: Impact on egg production, eggshell, and select bone attributes from 18 to 42 weeks of age

The impact of feeding sources of n-3 fatty acids (FA) to ISA brown and Shaver white breeders and their female offspring during rearing on egg production, eggshell, tibia, and keel bone attributes was examined. Breeders were fed Control (CON) or CON + 1% dried microalgae (DMA: Aurantiochytrium limacinum) as the source of docosahexaenoic acid or CON + 2.6% of a coextruded mixture of full-fat flaxseed (FFF) and pulses as a source of α-linolenic acid. Day-old offspring were fed 1) breeder CON-pullet CON (CON-CON), 2) breeder CON-pullet DMA (CON-DMA), 3) breeder CON-pullet FFF (CON-FFF), 4) breeder DMA-pullet CON (DMA-CON), 5) breeder DMA-pullet DMA (DMA-DMA), 6) breeder FFF-pullet CON (FFF-CON), and 7) breeder FFF-pullet FFF (FFF-FFF). At 18 wk of age (WOA), pullets were fed a common layer diet to 42 WOA for egg production and bone quality assessments. There was no (P > 0.05) interaction between strains and diets and the main effect of diets on egg production, egg mass, and eggshell quality. There was an interaction (P = 0.008) between strain and diet on egg weight (EW); however, the strain effect on EW (P