Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) is vital in the meat composition of broilers which is helpful to maintain a healthy diet in humans. The purpose of this study is to observe the effect of DHA from fish oil on growth performance, organ weight, and meat quality along with the blood profile of broilers. A total of 1600, 1‐day old, Ross 308 broilers with an average body weight of 43.15 ± 1.35 g were used in 5 weeks trail. Birds were randomly allotted into one of four dietary treatment groups named: control (CON), basal diet; treatment (TRT)1, CON + 0.05% DHA; TRT2, CON + 0.1% DHA; TRT3, CON + 0.15% DHA. Each treatment group consisted of 20 replications with 20 broilers per pen. The experiment was divided into three phases. Phase 1 (Day 1–7), Phase 2 (Day 7–21), and overall phase (Day 21–35). During Phase 1 and 2, no significant changes were observed on body weight gain (BWG) as the DHA levels increased in the diet. However, during Phase 3, broilers fed diet supplemented with DHA at increasing levels linearly increased (p < 0.05) BWG and feed intake (FI). Also, water holding capacity was reduced and drip loss percentage on Day 7 was increased linearly (p < 0.05) with the increase in DHA supplementation. At the end of trial, pH value of the meat was increased linearly (p < 0.05) with DHA levels. Moreover, blood cholesterol level, high‐density lipoprotein, low‐density lipoprotein was significantly and linearly (p < 0.05) decreased in DHA supplemented groups. Broiler‐fed diet with DHA supplement decreased the red blood cell linearly (p < 0.05) in blood. The results of the study indicate that DHA supplementation increased BWG with FI. Moreover, it has reduced blood lipid constituents with some adverse effect on meat quality.
This study examined the effects of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) purified from fish oil on the growth performance, nutrient digestibility, faecal microbial count, faecal score, and meat quality of finishing pigs. A total of 160 crossbred finishing pigs [(Yorkshire × Landrace) × Duroc] with an average body weight of 70.51 ± 2.23 kg were randomly assigned to 1 of 4 diets [5 pigs per pen (2 barrows and 3 gilts); 8 pens per treatment]. Dietary treatments were: CON -basal diet, TRT1 -CON + 0.10% DHA, TRT2 -CON + 0.25% DHA, TRT3 -CON + 0.50% DHA. DHA supplementation resulted in a linear increase (P = 0.046) in final body weight of finishing pigs. DHA supplementation increased average daily gain (ADG) in the TRT3 group compared to the CON group at week 6. In addition, the gain to feed ratio (G:F) was increased in the TRT3 group compared to the CON group. Increasing dietary DHA levels linearly improved ADG (P = 0.046) and G:F (P = 0.021). DHA supplementation did not influence nutrient digestibility. The pH, water holding capacity, cooking loss, and meat colour were not affected by the supplementation with graded DHA levels. On day 7, drip loss was reduced in the TRT2 and TRT3 groups compared to CON. However, faecal microbial and faecal score measurements remained unaffected among the treatments. In short, powdered DHA supplementation improved growth performance in finishing pigs without affecting nutrient digestibility, intestinal microorganisms and faecal score.
The present research experimented with the view of observing the effect of supplementing purified fish oil (FO) on growth performance, organ weight, meat quality, along with blood profile of broilers. The experiment was conducted upon 1600 male Ross 308, each aged 1 day, broiler strains with an average body weight of 43.15 ± 1.35 g were randomly allotted into four dietary treatment groups where CON, basal diet; TRT1, CON + 0.05% FO; TRT2, CON + 0.10% FO; and TRT3, CON + 0.15% FO respectively. Each treatment group consisted of 20 replication pens, with each pen containing 20 broiler chicks. The 4‐week long experiment was divided into two phases. The first phase (Days 7–21), the second phase (Days 22–35) and the overall (Days 7–35). On Day 21, the body weight of broilers in TRT2 and TRT3 was higher than the control. Increasing doses of purified FO supplementation showed a linear (p < 0.05) increase in body weight on Day 21. At the end of Phase 1, FO supplementation improved the body weight gain (BWG) of TRT2 and TRT3 group birds compared to CON. Increasing doses of FO supplementation increased the BWG linearly in all phases. Increasing doses of FO increased chicks' breast muscle weight with the highest value in the TRT3 group. Moreover, liver weight was linearly decreased in FO supplementation groups compared to the CON group. Abdominal fat was linearly decreased in FO supplemented groups. FO supplementation caused the lowest cholesterol and triglyceride in TRT3 than the CON group with a linear reduction. Low density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol was reduced by FO supplemental groups. In addition, FO supplementation increased the red blood cell (RBC) in the TRT3 group compared to the CON group. In conclusion, refined FO increased BWG, breast muscle weight and RBC and reduced cholesterol, triglycerides and LDL in broilers' blood.
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