Effect of free fatty acids supplementation in diet on metabolizable energy growth performance and carcass quality in broiler chickens

Department of Animal Science, Faculty of Agriculture, Kasetsart University, Bangkok, Thailand

^* Corresponding author: agrtrw@ku.ac.th

Abstract

Fats are an excellent source of energy and play an important role in the growth of broilers. Using free fatty acids is one of the interesting alternative choices for fats since there is a major metabolic fuel and a part of triacylglycerols. This study was conducted to evaluate the effects of free fatty acids (FFAs) substitution in diet on metabolizable energy, growth performance and carcass quality of broilers. A total of 900 male broiler chicks were divided into 5 groups with 6 replicates of 30 birds each. The birds received a control diet using palm oil as dietary oil supplementation and other groups were substituted with 25, 50, 75 and 100 % FFAs for 35 days. At the end of the feeding trial, the results indicated that all levels of FFAs substitution did not influenced the body weight, feed intake, FCR as well as carcass quality of broilers when compared to the control group. Moreover, there was no significant difference of the metabolizable energy in broilers fed with FFAs. It can be concluded that FFAs is useful as dietary oil supplementation by substitution of palm oil without negative effects on the metabolizable energy, growth performance and carcass quality of broilers.