Effects of various dietary fat sources on performance and body fatty acid composition of broiler chickens

Abstract

The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of different dietary fat sources including soybean oil (SO), poultry grease (BG) or beef tallow (BT) used as fat source on growth performance and fatty acids composition of abdominal fat, thigh skin. breast and thigh muscle of broiler chickens. Three hundred 21-day-old broilers were randomly assigned to 3 groups and were fed corn-soy based grower diets containing 6% of the respective dietary fat source between 21 and 41 days. Final body weight was not significantly (P > 0.05) affected by dietary fat sources. Daily weight gain and daily feed intake was significantly (P > 0.01) higher in the beef tallow group compared to the other groups. The feed conversion ratio of the poultry grease group was better compared to the other groups. In the soybean oil supplemented group, the amount of long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids was significantly higher in thigh skins, breast muscle and abdominal fat pad. In the thigh and breast muscle of the poultry grease fed group oleic acid content was significantly higher, and beef tallow caused increased accumulation of saturated fatty acid in thigh skins and abdominal fat pad. In conclusion, feeding of broilers with specific mixtures of fatty acids may substantially alter fatty acid composition of the carcass, soybean oil caused marked changes in the fatty acids patterns by significantly increasing polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) mainly linoleic acid in skin, abdominal fat and breast muscle, and thus better carcass quality of SO groups. Feed conversion ratio of the poultry grease group was better compared to the other groups, and in birds fed with BT daily weight gain and daily feed intake were higher than in the other groups. Supplemental BT to the grower diets has no detrimental effects on growth performance.