Studies on Egg Yolk Pigmentation

VARIOUS yellow corn inbreds contain different levels of xanthophyll (class term, for oxygen-containing carotenoids), as well as different ratios between the various carotenoids making up their total xanthophyll (Quackenbush et al., 1961, 1963; Blessin et al., 1963). Not much is known of the relative pigmenting properties of these carotenoids nor of the pigmenting efficiency of various strains of yellow corn possessing different carotenoid patterns. Much of the corn used in feed channels has been stored for one year or more, especially in countries depending on the import of grains. Such storage can cause considerable losses of the carotenoid pigments (Quackenbush, 1963). There is a lack of information on how such storage may influence the availability of the remaining xanthophyll for pigmentation purposes. The quantities of free fatty acids (FFA) in diets containing supplementary fats tend to increase markedly during storage, but no deleterious effects due to such diets have been …