Growth pattern, lipid composition, oxidation status, and serum biochemical profile of broiler chicken fed flaxseed meal for different durations

Abstract

This research studied the effects of flaxseed meal (FSM) feeding for different durations on growth performance, fatty acid profile, oxidative stability of meat, and serum biochemical profile of broiler chicken. In basal diet 100 g FSM replaced soybean meal. The FSM based diet was fed for different durations resulting in six dietary treatments viz. T1 (0-5 weeks), T2 (1-5 weeks), T3 (2-5 weeks), T4 (3-5 weeks), T5 (4-5 weeks), and T6 (without FSM). The results revealed significant negative effects of FSM feeding beyond 3 weeks duration (2-5 weeks) on the weight gain, feed efficiency, production efficiency factor, protein efficiency ratio, and energy efficiency ratio of broiler chicken. Significant improvement of fatty acid profile of chicken meat was observed by FSM feeding up to 3 weeks only. Increasing the FSM feeding beyond 1 week in case of thigh meat and 2 weeks in case of breast meat significantly decreased the antioxidant capacity of broiler chicken meat. The lipid oxidation of broiler chicken meat increased significantly by feeding FSM beyond 2 weeks. Increase in the duration of FSM feeding has significantly decreased the serum triglyceride, cholesterol, cardiac risk ratio, atherogenic coefficient, and atherogenic index of plasma, though, the decline was not significant beyond the 2 weeks (3-5 weeks) feeding duration. The progressive increase in serum HDL cholesterol, serum antioxidant enzyme activities, and MDA concentration was observed with increase of FSM feeding duration. Thus, the 100 g FSM feeding for 2 weeks duration (3-5 weeks) has no negative effect on the growth performance with better health indices and serum biochemical profile of broiler chicken. However, increasing the duration of feeding beyond 1 week (4-5 week) exerts negative effects on the oxidative stability of meat and serum antioxidant enzyme profile.