A comparative study on quality, proximate composition and cholesterol content of eggs and meat in Fayoumi and commercial White Leghorn chickens

The present study was conducted at Poultry Research Institute, Rawalpindi (Pakistan) with the objective of evaluating egg quality, proximate composition and cholesterol content of eggs and meat in Fayoumi (FAY) and commercial (Nick chick) White Leghorn (WLH) breeds of chickens. For this purpose, 64 adult (40 weeks-old) laying hens, 32 each of FAY and WLH breeds were maintained on littered floor in two separate pens under optimal management conditions. The birds were fed ad libitum a balanced layers ration. They had free access to clean and fresh drinking water and were kept under 16 h daily lighting schedule. Egg quality parameters, proximate composition and cholesterol content of eggs were studied for 6 weeks by randomly collecting 3 eggs daily from each breed. Thigh and breast meat samples were obtained from randomly selecting two birds from each breed by slaughtering them at the termination of experiment for determination of proximate composition and cholesterol content. The results show significantly higher egg weight, albumen weight and moisture content in WLH eggs in comparison to FAY eggs, whereas significantly higher yolk, ether extract content and yolk: albumen *Corresponding author: Sohail Hassan Khan, Directorate of Poultry Research Institute, Murree Road, Shamsabad, Rawalpindi, Pakistan E-mail: [email protected] Reviewing editor: Pedro González-Redondo, University of Seville, Spain Additional information is available at the end of the article ABOUT THE AUTHORS Salma Abdul Rehman has done MSc in Zoology. Shamim Akhter is an Associate professor at Department of Zoology, Pir Mehr Ali Shah Arid Agriculture University, Rawalpindi, Pakistan. She completed her PhD in Zoology from the same university. She has published more than 100 papers in national and international journals. Her area of interest is reproductive physiology. Sohail Hassan Khan is working as Assistant Nutrition Chemist at Poultry Research Institute, Rawalpindi, Pakistan. He got PhD in Animal Nutrition from the University of Agriculture Faisalabad, Pakistan. He has published more than 80 papers in national and international journals. He is a reviewer of many international journals. He works in the area of feed science. Muhammad Ashraf Anjum is a research scholar in the Poultry Research Institute, Rawalpindi, Pakistan. He got MSc (Hons) Animal Nutrition degree from the University of Agriculture Faisalabad, Pakistan. His area of interest is poultry feeds. PUBLIC INTEREST STATEMENT Importance of native birds for rural economy is immense in different countries. Consumers prefer village produced eggs and poultry meat and are willing to pay higher price for these products. The eggs and poultry meat produced from rural chickens still have higher consumer preference than those from commercial chicken. Though these birds are being used for rural backyard poultry production, their genetic potential has not been fully exploited. The results of this study are helpful to all stake holders to consume eggs and meat of rural chickens. Received: 11 April 2016 Accepted: 25 May 2016 Published: 17 June 2016 © 2016 The Author(s). This open access article is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) 4.0 license.