Environmental factors such as diet and exercise play a crucial role in the development of chronic diseases. Various studies demonstrate the importance of genetics for understanding the complexity of diseases, but they fail to consider the influence of environmental factors on the health of the organism. Therefore, a comprehensive and analytical approach that includes all non-genetic factors for an organism is needed to provide a fuller understanding of the state of its biological system, known as the exposome.
The high variabilities of egg production for each farming method (conventional, organic, and pasture farms) provide an opportunity to examine the effects of environmental factors on the internal components of the egg. Egg samples from each farming method were dehydrated at 170°F to obtain powder samples for FT-IR spectroscopy. The dried egg samples provided a higher resolution, especially in the fingerprint region, compared to liquid samples. Principal Component Analysis was used to examine the hen exposome in a non-destructive way. The Principal Component plots showed overlap across all egg samples, suggesting the farming method does not influence the components present in the egg. Further analytical studies are needed to quantify the hen exposome using its egg at the micro-level. Nonetheless, this research demonstrates the feasibility of employing a dehydration method to obtain samples suitable for analytical analysis.

Analytical and non-invasive approach to study the hen’s exposome

ACS Spring Meeting 2021

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