Practical approach to fat inclusion in broilers diets

ABSTRACT

This work was planned to throw a light on a practical approach currently used by poultry growers in Egypt to include different sources of fat in broilers diets to promote more gain and better finished carcass. One hundred and fifty day old commercial broiler chicks were equally allocated into six groups and fed on basal diet to which either animal fat [beef tallow] or vegetable oil [cottonseed oil + sunflower oil] was added at the level of 1 or 2% for 6 weeks experimental period. It is concluded that the inclusion of fat [animal and vegetable] at the level of 1 or 2% to broiler diets could improve broiler performance under high environmental temperature. In regard to fat source, CSO as a vegetable oil seemed to achieve better performance than did beef tallow, meanwhile, the higher level of CSO achieved better performance than its lower level. However, the usage of 2% CSO in growing period was not able to overcome the adverse effect of heat stress commonly occuring during our summer season. Concerning blood parameters, no significant difference could be detected for SGOT, SGPT and total serum protein which indicated that there are no detrmintal influence for such treatments. Serum cholesterol level was increased due to fat supplementation but beef tallow addition induced the highest values