Three experimentswith Japanese laying quails were performed aiming to assess the effect of supplementationwith minerals in organic form on the egg quality during storage and the depositionof minerals in eggs. The assessments of each experiment were related to onemineral, thus, experiment 1 assessed the supplementation with selenium in 0.35-,0.70- and 1.05-mg/kg levels of feed; experiment 2, the supplementation withzinc in 50-, 100- and 150-mg/kg levels of feed; and experiment 3, the supplementationof manganese with 60-; 120- and 180-mg/kg levels of feed. All diets were evaluatedcompared with a control diet without mineral supplementation. Birds were distributedin a completely randomized experimental design, with eight birds per plot andsix replicates per treatment. Fifty-five days after the beginning of diets,the yolks of three eggs from each plot were collected for selenium, zinc andmanganese quantification, whereas the albumens of three eggs from each parcelwere collected for analysis of selenium concentration. Eggs were collected atthe last days of the experimental period from each experiment, to be storedat room temperature (28±2 °C) and refrigeration (4 °C) duringdifferent periods (0, 10, 20 and 30 days), except for experiment 3, in whicheggs were stored at 0, 10 and 20 days. Percentages of albumen and yolk, yolkindex, Haugh unit and moisture loss of eggs were evaluated. The supplementationwith selenium is able to maintain the egg yolk index unchanged over the storageperiods; however, supplementation with zinc and manganese is not effective tokeep the quality of stored eggs. Supplementation with selenium and manganeseis effective to increase the concentration of these minerals at 328.66% in thealbumen and at 74.47% in the yolk, respectively. The different levels of zincdo not change the egg composition.
