EFFECT OF USING SOME FATTY ACIDS ON THE PERFORMANCE OF CHICKENS

Abstract

The present study was carried out in private commercial broilers of farm at Berket EL-Saab city, Menoufia governorate, Egypt, throughout the experimental period the (May to June 2019). The aim of this study was to investigate the impacts of adding two vegetable oils, linseed or sunflower, in broiler diets, on growth performance, some blood components, some carcass traits, immune and economic efficiency. A total number of one hundred and eighty, one day old unsexed Arbor Acres broiler chicks were used in this study. Chicks were individually weighed, wing banded, and randomly assigned to three treatments (T1, T2 and T3) nearly similar in average body weight, (3 replicates pens of 20 birds each ˷ 42g). Two vegetable oils, linseed or sunflower, were added at the level 3% in broiler diets. The experimental groups were follows: T1: Control (basal diet without oil), T2: basal diet with 3% linseed oil and T3: basal diet with 3% sunflower oil. The results revealed that body weight, body weight gain, feed conversion ratio and performance index were improved significantly (P ≤ 0.05) with addition of vegetable oils from 0 - 35 days of age compared to the control birds. Birds fed linseed oil had higher values of white blood cells (WBCs), total cholesterol, triglyceride and high density lipo-protein (HDL), while low density lipo-protein (LDL) was the lowest value compared to the other groups. Linseed or sunflower oils addition significantly (P ≤ 0.05) decreased abdominal fat and liver %, while dressing percentage, heart and gizzard % was not affected. Immune organs proportion (spleen, thymus and bursa %) were significantly (P ≤ 0.05) increased when birds received linseed oil supplement compared to birds fed on sunflower oil or basal diet (control). Chicks fed linseed oil treatment recorded the highest relative economic efficiency (108.20 %), followed by the chicks fed on sunflower oil (103.28), considering the control group as 100%. It could be concluded that the supplementation of 3% linseed oil to the broiler diets can be used with no adverse effects. It will act improving body weight, feed conversion ratio, performance index, increasing the proportion of immune organs and relative economical efficiency, under the same conditions of this study.