Effect of different dietary fat sources and their levels on performance of broilers

Abstract

The aim of this study was to determine the effect of feeding various fat sources (fish oil, linseed oil, sunflower oil and soy oil) and different fat inclusion levels (2, 4, 6 and 8%) on body weight gain, feed consumption and feed efficiency of broiler chicks.Sixteen hundred day-old unsexed chickens (Cobb - 500) were used for this experiment during 6 weeks. The chickens were divided into sixteen dietary groups, 100 chickens in each, with five replicates (20 birds per replicate). Diets, containing 2, 4, 6 and 8% fish oil (FO) (respectively, Diet A1, A2, A3 and A4); 1.333% FO + 0.666% linseed oil (LO) (Diet B1); 2.666% FO + 1.333% LO (Diet B2); 4% FO + 2% LO (Diet B3); 5,333% FO + 2.666% LO (Diet B4); 0.666% FO + 0.666% LO + 0.666% sunflower oil (SFO) (Diet C1); 1.333% FO + 1.333% LO + 1.333% SFO (Diet C2); 2% FO + 2% LO + 2% SFO (Diet C3); 2.666% FO + 2.666% LO + 2.666% SFO (Diet C4) and 2, 4, 6 and 8% soy oil (SO) (respectively, Diet D1, D2, D3 and D4) were used.It is concluded that fat sources and inclusion levels affected performance parameters (body weight gain, feed consumption) except for feed conversion ratio. A combination of vegetable oil with fish oil had a marked beneficial effect on performance, which was attributed to the synergistic effect of combining fatty acids.