Effects of stabilized vs. raw rice bran on blood and egg cholesterol in laying hens

The aim of this study was if stabilized Vs raw rice bran may affect blood and egg cholesterol in laying hens? A total of 200 High line strain laying hens were divided into 5 treatments (4 replicates, and 10 birds per replication) in a completely randomized experiment for 10 weeks. Treatments include: 0% rice bran (NC),10% raw rice bran (RRB10), 10% stabilized rice bran (SRB10), 15% raw rice bran (RRB15) and 15% stabilized rice bran (SRB15). Results showed that inclusion of rice bran in diet lowered both serum and egg yolk cholesterol significantly (P<0.05). The lowest serum and egg yolk cholesterol (95.34 ± 25.22 mg/dl and 11.10 ± 3.35 mg/g respectively) were obtained with SRB15 while the highest level was recorded for NC for serum cholesterol (162.58 ± 14.2 mg/dl) and egg yolk (16.25 ± 0.57 mg/g) cholesterol. A similar trend was observed with egg cholesterol in which highest level (307.61 ± 26.43 mg/egg) was observed with NC and the lowest level (149.55 ± 16.74 mg/egg) was obtained when diet contained 15% SRB. There was not significant differences between SRB15 and RRB15 and also between SRB10 and RRB10 for both serum and egg yolk cholesterol. FCR, Egg weight and Egg yolk weight were not significantly affected by treatments. According DSM index color number 8 for SRB15 and RRB15, number 7 for SRB10 and RRB10 and number 6 for NC are obtained. Conclusion was that rice bran may be used to reduce blood and egg cholesterol in laying hens.