________________________________________________________________________________ AbstractA study was conducted to determine the influence of different dietary lipid sources and inclusion levels on production performance of male broilers. Eight isoenergetic (15.1 MJ AME/kg DM) and isonitrogenous (223 g CP/kg DM) diets were formulated, using high oleic sunflower oil (HO), sunflower oil (SO), fish oil (FO) and tallow (T) at a 30 g/kg and 60 g/kg dietary inclusion level. Eight hundred (800), dayold Ross 788 broiler males were randomly allocated to the eight treatments (n = 100) and were further subdivided into four replicates/treatment (n = 25). All birds receive a standard commercial diet for the first 14 days, where-after the experimental diets were fed for 28 days. Feed intake and body weights were recorded weekly, while mortalities were recorded and dead birds weighed daily. Mortalities were brought into consideration during the calculation of average daily feed intake (g feed/bird/day) and feed conversion ratio (g feed/g body weight gain). Contrary to saturated fatty acids (T), the inclusion of unsaturated fatty acids (HO, SO, FO) at a higher level (60 g/kg) resulted in a significantly improved FCR. It seems that the optimum dietary inclusion level of saturated fatty acids is lower (30 g/kg) than that of unsaturated sources.________________________________________________________________________________

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________________________________________________________________________________ AbstractA study was conducted to determine the influence of different dietary lipid sources on dressing percentage, breast meat yield and breast weight of male broiler birds. Four isoenergetic (15.1 MJ AME/kg DM) and isonitrogenous (222.3 g CP/kg DM) diets were formulated, using high oleic sunflower oil (HO), sunflower oil (SO), fish oil (FO) and tallow (T) at a 60 g/kg dietary inclusion level. Four hundred, day-old Ross 788 broiler males were randomly allocated to the four treatments (n = 100) and further subdivided into four replicates/treatment (n = 25). All birds receive a standard commercial diet for the first 14 days, whereafter the experimental diets were fed for another 28 days. At 42 days of age, three birds/replicate (n = 12/treatment) were randomly selected, weighed and slaughtered at a commercial abattoir. Chilled carcasses (4 °C) were weighed to determine dressing percentage. Breast muscles were removed from the chilled carcasses, skinned and weighed for the calculation of breast meat yield. Breast meat yield were expressed as a percentage of the live body weight as well as carcass weight. This study showed that the broilers fed a diet supplemented with 60 g/kg tallow had a better dressing percentage, breast meat yield and breast weight compared to other treatments. These results suggested that dietary lipid sources could be used to improve certain carcass traits of broilers. ________________________________________________________________________________

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