ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Vet. Sci.
Sec. Animal Nutrition and Metabolism
This article is part of the Research TopicSustainable Nutritional Strategies for Improving Health Status, Egg and Meat Quality in PoultryView all 25 articles
The impact of metal amino acid complexes on cuticle quality and Salmonella Enteritidis contamination in laying hens' eggs
Provisionally accepted
Saruanna M. S. Clemente1Mércia R. Barros1
Marcos Jose Batista Dos Santos1*
Carlos B. V. Rabello1Waleska R. L. Medeiros-Ventura1Rogério Ventura da Silva Junior1Felipe P. Melo1Priscila O. Silva1Fábio A. B. Santos1Raquel Burin2Alba k Fireman2- 1Federal Rural University of Pernambuco, Recife, Brazil
- 2Zinpro Corp, Eden Prairie, United States
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Eggshell quality and microbial safety are critical concerns in poultry production, with Salmonella Enteritidis contamination representing a significant public health risk. Traditional inorganic mineral supplementation may not optimize eggshell integrity against bacterial penetration. This study investigated the effects of different metal-amino acid complexes on eggshell cuticle quality and resistance to S. Enteritidis penetration in laying hen eggs. Two experiments were conducted with 67-week-old Dekalb White laying hens with treatments consisting of: inorganic minerals (IM – Control at 100% recommendations inclusion) or different trace mineral inclusion rates (100%, 70%, 40%) as either amino acid complexed minerals (AACM, Experiment 1) or lysine and glutamic acid complexed minerals (LGCM, Experiment 2). Eggshell cuticle quality was measured using spectrophotometric analysis and experimental contamination with S. Enteritidis was performed to evaluate bacterial penetration after various storage periods. Supplementation with 40% AACM improved shell thickness and palisade layer values compared to IM (P < 0.01). LGCM supplementation at 70% and 40% levels enhanced cuticle visual staining scoring (P < 0.01). Eggs from hens fed 40% AACM reduced Salmonella contamination, with 91.7% of samples classified as having no risk for consumption. All LGCM treatments completely prevented S. Enteritidis penetration into egg yolks regardless of inclusion level. In conclusion, AACM improved eggshell quality and reduced S. Enteritidis contamination in eggs. Supplementation with 40% AACM resulted in 91.7% of samples being free of yolk contamination, while LGCM supplementation at all levels completely prevented bacterial penetration into egg yolks, achieving 100% safety despite eggshell contamination.
Keywords: egg production, Food Safety, Microbiology, Shell resistance, Trace minerals
Received: 25 Aug 2025; Accepted: 28 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Clemente, Barros, Santos, Rabello, Medeiros-Ventura, Silva Junior, Melo, Silva, Santos, Burin and Fireman. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Marcos Jose Batista Dos Santos
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