COMPARISON OF FREEZE-DRIED AND EXTRUDED SPIRULINA-PLATENSIS AS YOLK PIGMENTING AGENTS

Experiment 1 was an 8-wk study with Japanese quail fed 0, .5, 1.0, 2.0 , and 4.0% of freeze-dried spirulina or the dry equivalent of fresh sp irulina extruded with com. Experiment 2 was a 16-wk repeat of Experime nt 1 using levels of 0, .25, .5, 1.0, and 2.0% spirulina. In the third experiment, com, barley, and cassava were extruded with fresh spiruli na equal to 1% of the dried product, and each feedstuff fed with 1% fr eeze-dried spirulina. Four replicates of five quail were assigned to e ach treatment. Yolk color increased with increasing dietary levels of spirulina in Experiment 1. There also was a consistent increase in yol k color with freeze-dried spirulina compared with the extruded spiruli na. This pattern was also seen in Experiment 2. In addition, eggs from quail fed the extruded com control diet had markedly lower yolk score s than those from quail fed the untreated com control diet. The mean R oche yolk color score of eggs from quail fed com, barley, or cassava e xtruded with spirulina was 5.91, 3.55, and 6.70, respectively. These v alues were respectively 1.41, 1.89, and 4.06 units greater than the co rresponding control values.