EFFECT OF DIETARY POLYUNSATURATED FATTY ACIDS AND ANTIOXIDANTS SUPPLEMENTATION ON PRODUCTIVE PERFORMANCE, IMMUNE RESPONSE AND BLOOD PARAMETERS OF BROILER CHICKENS

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Department of Animal Production, National Research Centre, 33 Bohouthst., Dokki, Giza, Egypt.

2 Department of Poultry Production, Faculty of Agriculture, Ain Shams Univ., Shobra El-Kheima, Cairo, Egypt.

Abstract

This study conducted to investigate the effects of dietary linseed oil (LO) or fish oil (FO) and/or antioxidants on productive performance, immune response, carcass traits and blood parameters of broiler chickens. A total of 168 one-day-old, Cobb broiler chicks were obtained from a local commercial hatchery. The birds were randomly divided into seven groups with three replicates, eight chicks each. Birds of the seven groups were fed on iso-caloric and iso-nitrogenous diets containing the same ingredients (basal diet) except the source of oil and addition of antioxidants. The first group was fed on the basal diets containing 2% soya oil (control), the 2nd , 3rd and 4th groups were given the basal diets containing 2% LO, 2% LO + 200 mg vitamin E (vit E)/ kg or 2% LO + 0.2% Sweet Chestnut Tannin (SCT), respectively. While the 5th, 6th and 7th groups were offered the basal diet containing 2% FO, 2% FO + 200 mg vit E/ kg or 2% FO + 0.2% SCT, respectively. During the whole period, adding FO without or with antioxidants significantly (p≤ 0.05) increased live body weight, body weight gain compared to control. Feed intake was not significantly (p> 0.05) affected by the dietary treatments. All dietary treatments had (p≤ 0.05) lower feed conversion ratio than the control. Moreover, the best FCR were recorded for the FO + 0.2% SCT dietary group, followed by the LO + 2% SCT, FO and FO + 200 mg vit E/ kg groups. No significant (P≥ 0.05) difference among treatments was observed in carcass traits of broilers. Inclusion of FO with or without antioxidants in broiler diets improved antibody titer against SRBCs in immune response (p≤ 0.05) compared to control. A significant decrease in plasma total lipid concentration was observed with all dietary treatments. The best HDL value were observed for the FO + 0.2% SCT dietary group, followed by the FO and FO + 200 mg vit E/ kg groups. It could be concluded that the inclusion of 2% FO and/or antioxidants of the broiler diets improved the productive performance, immune response and plasma lipid of broilers. Moreover, the addition of 2% fish oil with 0.2% SCT as antioxidants recorded the best productive performance, immune response and plasma lipids of broilers.

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