Effect of cottonseed oil on discoloration of cold storage eggs. Poultry Sci. 41

THE property of cottonseed meal when fed to laying hens to produce olive-colored yolks in cold stored eggs was re-ported in 1917, by Lamon and Lee and the property to produce pink whites by Sher-wood in 1931. The olive color was reported by Heywang, Bird and Altschul (1955) to be caused by free gossypol, and the pink color was reported by Masson, Vavich, Heywang and Kemmerer (1957), and by Shenstone and Vickery (1959), to be caused by propene ring fatty acids. The observa-tions by Kemmerer, Heywang and Vavich (1961), that sterculic acid enhanced gossy-pol discoloration in eggs indicate, but do not show definitely, that the propene ring fatty acids in cottonseed oil may have the same effect. The work reported in this paper shows definitely that cottonseed oil has an en-hancing effect on the property of gossypol to cause olive discoloration in cold stored eggs and itself to cause pink coloration. EXPERIMENTAL Nine lots, each containing six White Leghorn hens, were given the same practi-cal laying mash as was used in previously reported work on Sterculia foetida oil (Kemmerer et al., 1961) and water, ad libitum. Each hen was trapnested in order to identify the eggs. Eggs were collected daily from the 4th day following adminis-tration of gossypol through the 12th da