Long-Term Supplementation of Laying Hen Diets with Various Selenium Sources as a Method for the Fortification of Eggs with Selenium

Table 4

Effects of dietary selenium supplements on egg characteristics.

Item	Egg weight (g)	Share in egg (%)			Shell thickness (mm)	Shell strength (kg/cm^2)	Yolk color^1
		Yolk	Egg white	Shell
Treatments
Control	51.1	30.2	56.3	13.6	0.333	3.55	12.2 A
Na-selenite	51.4	31.3	55.5	13.2	0.340	3.66	13.0 B
Se-Yeast	51.3	30.0	56.2	13.9	0.346	3.70	13.0 B
Se-Met	52.0	30.5	55.9	13.6	0.341	3.62	12.8 B
SEM	0.392	0.269	0.309	0.119	0.003	0.060	0.068
value	0.899	0.068	0.524	0.264	0.600	0.841	0.001
Time of Se supplementation
After 3 months	52.2	29.7 A	57.8 A	13.4	0.343	3.59	12.8
5 months	50.8	32.1 B	54.2 B	13.7	0.338	3.67	12.8
values for time of Se suppl.	0.064	0.001	0.001	0.211	0.403	0.488	0.662
Treatment × time	0.021	0.122	0.747	0.036	0.183	0.053	0.798

¹La Roche scale: max. 15 points. Means within a column marked with different superscripts differ significantly with A and B by .