NUTRITIVE-VALUE OF EGGS IN LOW AND HIGH CHOLESTEROL GROUPS OF JAPANESE-QUAIL

We evaluated egg weight, content of yolk dry matter, content of fat in wet yolk, content of cholesterol in yolk fat and in wet yolk and samp le correlations between these traits in two groups of Japanese quail, selected for low (LC) and high (HC) yolk cholesterol concentration. 1. Egg weight was significantly higher by 0.4 g in LC-group (P less than or equal to 0.05). 2. There was no significant difference between LC and HC groups in yolk dry matter. 3. Yolk fat content was 1.6% higher in the HC-group (P less than or equal to 0.01). The average fat conten t was 28.1% in the LC and 29.7% in the HC-group. 4. In the LC group yo lk cholesterol concentration was lower in wet yolk (1 323 mg versus 1 606 mg cholestero1/100 g yolk) and also in yolk fat (4 703 mg versus 5 411 mg cholesterol/100 g fat) than in the HC group (P I 0.01). 5. We found weak and negative correlations between egg weight and cholestero l concentration in yolk lipids and in wet yolk in both groups ((P less than or equal to 0.05). Strong and positive correlations (P less than or equal to 0.01) were found between yolk fat content and wet yolk ch olesterol concentration.