Effects of Vitamin D enhancement on eggs dedicated to human consumption

Abstract

Solar UVB radiation is only present at adequate levels in the UK to allow the human body to produce its vitamin D requirement from sunlight alone between the months of March and October (NHS, 2017). Coupled with the fact that a growing proportion of the population are employed in sectors requiring long hours spent indoors and children are spending an increasing amount of time indoors, the incidence of vitamin D deficiencies and related diseases are on the rise. In this study I looked at whether the vitamin D levels in egg yolk could be raised to 200IU (5μg) via supplementing the hen’s drinking water with vitamin D and examined whether this had any effect on egg quality. Two sister flocks, each with 16,000 birds were used. One as a Control flock and the other as the Trial flock. The Trial flock had vitamin D solution, D Plus, added to its drinking water for three consecutive days a week, each week for the duration of the trial. Other than this change in water all other variables such as feed, lighting timings etc. were kept identical in each flock.