Effect of Dietary Full-Fat Flax Seed With and Without Antioxidant on the Fatty Acid Composition of Major Lipid Classes of Chicken Meats

Abstract

Male broiler chicks (Hubbard × Hubbard) were raised to 6 wk on one of five test diets: corn-soybean meal control diet and 15% full-fat flax seed (FFS) with and without the antioxidants mixed tocopherol (T), canthaxanthin (C), or both (FFS, FFS+T, FFS+C, FFS+T+C). The effects of the antioxidants on broiler performance, carcass yield, and fatty acid composition of the white and dark meat lipid were investigated. Particular attention was paid to the n-3 fatty acid composition of triglyceride, phosphatidyl ethanolamine, and phosphatidyl choline fractions. The antioxidants influenced neither broiler performance nor yield. The birds did not utilize the experimental diets as efficiently as the corn-soybean meal diet. The fatty acid compositions of white and dark meat lipids of broilers were influenced by dietary fatty acids, but to different extents among the lipid fractions. Fatty acids with 20 or more carbon atoms were moderately distributed in the phosphatidyl choline fraction as compared with the triglyceride and phosphatidyl ethanolamine fractions. The presence or absence of antioxidants influenced the fatty acid composition and distribution in the phosphatidyl ethanolamine fraction of white meat. The white meat from birds fed FFS+T, FSS+C, and FFS+T+C diets had elevated levels of C18:3n3, C20:5n3, C22:5n3, and C22:6n3 and reduced levels of total saturates and n-6:n-3 as opposed to the FFS and corn-soybean meal groups. From a nutritional standpoint, the lower n-6:n-3 ratio, observed from birds fed the FFS diet seemed to be more desirable.