Growth and gut health in chickens on diets varying in fatty acid composition and selenium content

Abstract

Chicken feed composition is essential to chicken health and meat composition. Fatty acids of the n-6 and n-3 families and selenium are of high importance to inflammatory processes. The effect of varying chicken dietary compositions in saturated and unsaturated oil sources with varying n-6 and n-3 levels combined with two levels of organic selenium on chicken growth, gizzard and gut health was studied.Wheat-based chicken diets supplemented with either 0.1 mg Se/kg feed or 1.0 mg Se/kg feed in combinations with rendered fat, soybean oil, rapeseed oil, linseed oil, palm oil, and red palm oil were used.Altering the fatty acid profile and selenium level did not significantly affect gizzard or gut health in broiler chickens, but increased early growth in chickens was seen for the red palm oil, linseed oil, and high selenium groups. Increased selenium levels lead to fewer incidences of loose digesta and higher gizzard weights.