Camelina sativa: An Emerging Feedstuff for Laying Hens to Improve the Nutritional Quality of Eggs and Meat

Camelina sativa (CS) is an emerging sustainable oilseed crop with interesting feed application potentialities. The research assessed the potentiality of Camelina sativa (CS) in the diet for free-range laying hens, aiming at reaching a nutritional claim. To this purpose, two feeding groups of hens (n = 100 Livorno hens, n = 25 hens/pen) were farmed outdoor and received either a Control diet, which was a commercial diet for laying hens, or a CS diet. The latter was formulated to include the 5% CS cake and 1% CS oil, replacing conventional feedstuffs. Diets were isoprotein and isoenergy and were available ad libitum throughout the laying period (February-September). At day 1, n = 12 eggs/diet were sampled to assess the initial proximate composition and FA profile. Every 7 days the sampling was repeated to analyze the eggs' FA profile, up to day 35. At the end of the laying season, n = 6 hens/dietary treatment were slaughtered and subjected to meat quality evaluations. Results highlighted that a 28-day feeding was the period required to obtain 227 mg of C18:3 n-3 and 81 mg of C20:5 n-3 + C22:6 n-3/100 g egg, whereas a further 7 days of feeding trial were ineffective in further enhancing the omega-3 FA content of eggs. CS eggs were comparable to Control ones for overall physical traits, proximate composition, and shelf-life. In addition, at the end of the laying period, the meat of CS hens was also found to be healthier than that of Control ones, thanks to a higher omega-3 FA proportion (p < 0.01), which was, however, not sufficient to reach any nutritional claim. Instead, the proximate composition of CS meat was overall comparable to Control hens. In conclusion, the present research demonstrated that feeding Camelina sativa meal and oil to laying hens is feasible and allows to reach the nutritional claim in eggs "rich in omega-3 FA" after a feeding period of 28 days, without any negative effects on other eggs' quality trials. Camelina sativa can thus be defined as a promising sustainable feedstuff for the poultry sector for diversification purposes and to enhance the nutritional quality of eggs.