Buriti Oil (Mauritia flexuosa L.) as Functional Feed for Broiler Chickens

Abstract

Listen

Translate article

This experiment evaluated the effects of including buriti oil (BO) in the diet of broilers on growth performance, nutrient digestibility, carcass yield, meat quality, blood parameters, intestinal morphometry, the proliferation of collagen fibers in the skin and collagen concentration in the breast muscle. A total of 180 one-day-old Ross male chicks were distributed in a completely randomized experimental design with three treatments (0%, 1% and 2% BO) and six replications of 10 birds each. Nutrient digestibility was evaluated from 8 to 21 days, while the performance, carcass yield, meat cut yields, abdominal fat, meat quality, blood parameters, intestinal morphometry and skin histology of the birds were evaluated after 21 days. The inclusion of BO significantly affected (p ≤ 0.05) performance, digestibility, meat color, lymphocyte count, duodenal morphometry and collagen concentration. In addition, it increased the metabolizable energy of the diet and reduced the birds’ performance, indicating that the nutraceutical effect of BO improved nutrient use. However, it caused an excess of energy that had to be metabolized by the birds, consequently affecting their performance. BO increased the pigmentation of the breast meat and reduced the lymphocyte count, probably due to its antimicrobial action, consequently decreasing the recruitment of defense cells. An increase in the height of the crypt of the duodenum was observed as the inclusion of BO increased, with the opposite being observed in the jejunum. The inclusion of BO increased the histological proliferation of collagen from minimal (0%) to medium (1%) and moderate (2%), as well as the collagen concentration (CC = 35.933 + 4.677BO; R2 = 0.80). Thus, due to functional/nutraceutical effects, adding BO in the diet of broilers can be a promising alternative to antibiotic growth promoters to improve poultry production.