Rapeseed meal and egg taint: Effects of low glucosinolate Brassica napus meal,dehulled meal and hulls,and of neomycin

Whole meals prepared from four cultivars (Tower, ‘French’ (unknown cultivar from France), Duo and Tandem) contained sufficient progoitrin and soluble tannins to impair trimethylamine (TMA) oxidation, and thereby allow the TMA content of eggs to rise above the tainting threshold, when they were fed as protein supplements (100 g kg^?1) to hens which had been bred for low TMA oxidase activity. Hulls from Tower and ‘French’ seed produced small, but detectable, effects and since the potencies of dehulled and whole meals were similar, it was established that the hulls make only a very minor contribution to the tainting potential. Although the addition of neomycin to the drinking water when the Tandem whole meal was fed appeared to diminish its effects to a certain extent, it had little value as a prophylactic measure. It was concluded that these meals could produce widespread tainting if used commercially in the UK, and that the removal from the laying hens of the genetic defect which restricts the synthesis of TMA oxidase and thereby confers susceptibility is the only effective way of eliminating the problem.