Vitamin E concentration in eggs of rural and urban range and cage reared chicken in two seasons

A factorial experiment of three rearing systems in two seasons was conducted using eggs from range birds of rural and urban areas and commercial chicken eggs from cage layers. The eggs from rural poultry were collected in villages spread throughout Tamil Nadu and urban eggs from ten places around Chennai city; the commercial eggs were taken from ten wholesale outlets located in the city of Chennai. 300 eggs each for rural, urban and commercial eggs respectively were collected in each season comprising a total of 1800 eggs. Three eggs each were randomly selected from thirty eggs collected from each area/location (30 eggs per system) to estimate the total α-Tocopherol in the eggs. There was a highly significant (P<0.01) difference in the α-Tocopherol content of the egg between the different rearing systems and seasons. Eggs collected from the commercial layers gave significantly (P<0.01) higher α-Tocopherol when compared to the eggs from urban range reared or the rural range reared birds. Eggs laid during the monsoon season had significantly (P<0.01) higher α-Tocopherol. Eggs from the cage reared commercial layer and eggs collected during the monsoon season had significantly (P<0.01) higher α-Tocopherol levels.