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The Effect of Male and Female Supplementation of L-Carnitine on Reproductive Traits of White Leghorns¹

Department of Animal Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47907

² Corresponding author: phester{at}purdue.edu

Previous work in our laboratory showed that including 125 ppm of L-carnitine in the diets of roosters increased sperm concentration. The objective of this experiment was to determine whether reproductive efficiency could be improved by feeding L-carnitine to both parents over that of feeding L-carnitine to only the male or female. Diets formulated to contain 0 or 125 ppm of L-carnitine were fed to male and female birds from hatch until 37 wk of age. Eighty-four roosters were used, with the semen of 2 roosters constituting an experimental unit. Pools of semen from either L-carnitine-supplemented or control roosters were artificially inseminated into each of 288 hens with 23.5 µL of semen at weekly intervals, in a 2 x 2 factorial arrangement, resulting in a mean insemination dose of 1.2 and 1.1 x 10⁸ sperm/hen for L-carnitine and control hens, respectively. Dietary L-carnitine, as compared with the control diet, increased egg yolk L-carnitine concentration (P = 0.001), decreased hatchling yolk sac weights (P = 0.0001), decreased yolk sac lipid content at hatch (P = 0.01), and culminated in compositional changes of yolk fatty acids, but it did not affect hatch rate, egg production, and egg traits. Although supplementing diets with L-carnitine improved sperm concentration, it did not result in a subsequent improvement in hatch rate, most likely because of the high numbers of sperm that were inseminated artificially in both the control and L-carnitine-supplemented hens. The higher concentrations of L-carnitine in the yolk of hatching eggs obtained from hens consuming L-carnitine as compared with controls may have encouraged the utilization of fat by developing embryos, as indicated by the decreased hatchling yolk sac weights and yolk sac lipid content, perhaps leading to the selective utilization of linoleic (C18:2n-6) and -linolenic (C18:3n-3) acids for growth and development over myristic (C14:0) and oleic (C18:1n-9) acids.

Key Words: L-carnitine • hatch rate • egg production • yolk lipid • yolk sac

¹ Journal paper no. 2007-18162 of the Purdue University Agricultural Research Programs, West Lafayette, IN 47907