ENRICHING POULTRY EGGS WITH BUTTERMILK-SOURCED SPHINGOMYELIN

The primary goalof this project is to determine if dairy waste stream sourced buttermilk (BM) can be utilized as an alternative feedstuff for layers and determine if the bioactive sphingomyelin (SM) from BM can be enriched into egg yolks. The proposed project is a collaboration between UVM and Cornell University. To achieve the proposed goals in Aim 1 the animal experiment will be conducted at Cornell University. Subsequent analyses, data processing, and manuscript curation will occur at UVM.Specific Aim 1: Enrich eggs with dairy specific SM sourced from BM.Rationale: Previous layer nutritional experiments demonstrate that layer hens can absorb and deposit dietary sourced lipophilic bioactives into egg yolks in a dose dependent manner. This experiment will directly test the hypothesis that supplementing the diets of layers with dried BM will result in an accumulation of dairy-specific SM within egg yolks in a dose response without adversely affecting animal health and productionSub-Aim 1: Evaluate how dietary BM inclusion affects the production performance, health status, and egg quality of layers. The working hypothesis is that BM inclusion ranging from 2.5-10.0% of the diet will not negatively affect the production performance or long-term health status of layers. This aim will determine whether dietary dried BM impacts various health related parameters in layers including plasma biochemical indices and egg quality.Sub-Aim 2: Evaluate the cost to benefit of utilizing dried BM as a feed additive for layers. The working hypothesis is that the addition of dried BM to layer diets will decrease the cost of feeding layers and producing eggs and will increase the value of eggs to consumers. This aim will determine the cost to benefit of feeding layers dried BM and consumer acceptance of eggs from layers fed BM and their willingness to pay for this special attribute of eggs.