Effect of dietary oil on the health of the growing bird, Gallus domesticus

Abstract

The seven days old chicks Grail us domesticus (Vencobb broilers) were fed with a diet supplemented with 5 percent dose of coconut oil, sunflower oil and fish oil for period of 30 days. The coconut oil contains around 26 percent of monoenoic acid and 61 percent saturated fatty acid. Sunflower oil contains 58 percent of linoleic acid (omega 6 fatty acid), while the fish oil contains about 20 percent monoenoic fatty acids, 10 percent linoleic acid and 35 percent of long chain polyunsaturated fatty (omega 3 fatty acids). Dietary supplementation of these oils greatly influenced the activities of liver function and cardiac function enzymes as well as tissue fatty acid profiles of the chicks. Supplementation of sunflower oil and fish oil enhanced the level of omega 6 (linoleic, arachidonic acids) fatty acids respectively in liver and serum. A reduction in the serum LDL cholesterol and increase in HDL cholesterol was noticed in the chicks fed with a diet supplemented with fish oil and sunflower oil, best results were obtained with the supplementation of fish oil. The cardiac and liver function test confirmed the well being of the chick supplemented with fish oil.