Dietary Manipulation of Lean Tissue Deposition in Broiler Chickens

Abstract

Two experiments were conducted to examine the effect of graded levels of dietary chromium and leucine, and different fat sources on performance and body composition of broiler chickens. The results showed that chromium picolinate at 0.5 ppm significantly (p<0.05) lowered the carcass fat level. Gut weight and carcass water content were increased as a result of chromium treatment. Body weight, plucked weight, carcass weight, abdominal fat pad weight, breast yield and feed efficiency were unaffected by chromium treatment. Leucine did not interact with chromium to effect lean growth. Dietary leucine above the recommended maintenance level (1.2% of diet) markedly (p<0.001) reduced the breast muscle yield. The addition of fish oil to broiler diets reduced (p<0.05) the abdominal fat pad weights compared to birds on linseed diets. Fish oil is believed to improve lean growth through the effects of long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids in lowering the very low-density lipoprotein levels and triglyceride in the blood, in the meantime increasing glucose uptake into the muscle tissue in blood and by minimizing the negative impact of the immune system on protein breakdown. The amount of fat in the diet (2% or 4%) did not affect body composition.