The response of egg weight to the inclusion of different amounts of vegetable oil and linoleic acid in the diet of laying hens

Abstract

1. Four diets containing different amounts of vegetable oil and linoleic acid were fed to White Leghorn hens throughout a full laying year. 2. Egg weight was poor with the low fat basal diet but increased in relation to the amounts of maize oil (4 and 30 g/kg) included in the diet. 3. With a diet containing 30 g olive oil/kg, egg weight was similar to that obtained with the diet containing the same amount of maize oil. 4. Rearing the birds on diets containing low or moderate amounts of linoleic acid did not affect the response to fatty acid content of the layer's diet. 5. It is concluded that the requirement of the laying hen for linoleic add is not higher than 9 g/kg but that egg weight does respond to higher dietary amounts of readily absorbable fatty acids.