The Effects of L-Carnitine and Different Levels of Animal Fat on Performance, Carcass Characteristics, some Blood Parameters and Immune Response in Broiler Chicks

Subject Areas : Camel

K. Parsaeimehr ¹ , M. Afrouziyeh ² , S. Hoseinzadeh ³

1 - Department of Animal Science, College of Agricultural Science, Urmia University, Urmia, Iran
2 - Department of Animal Science, Tabriz Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tabriz, Iran
3 - Department of Animal Science, Tabriz Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tabriz, Iran

Received: 2013-09-11 Accepted : 2014-01-30 Published : 2014-09-01

Keywords: immune response, broiler performance, blood metabolites, animal fat, L-carnitine,

Abstract :

This study was conducted to investigate the effects of L-carnitine and different levels of animal fat on performance, carcass characteristics and some blood parameters of broiler chickens. Two hundred one-day old male broiler chicks were allotted to5 treatments in 4 replicates and 10 birds in each replicate. Dietary treatments consisted of: 1) diet with 5% vegetable oil (T1), 2) diet with 5% vegetable oil + 300 mg/kg L-carnitine (T2), 3) diet with 4% animal fat + 300 mg/kg L-carnitine (T3), 4) diet with 5% animal fat + 300 mg/kg L-carnitine (T4) and 5) diet with 6% animal fat + 300 mg/kg L-carnitine (T5). The dietary treatments had not significant effect on body weight gain in days 1-21 (P>0.05). The body weight of chicks fed T4 diet was increased in days 22-42 and whole period of the experiment (P<0.05). The diet with L-carnitine and 5% animal fat had a significant effect on feed conversion ratio (P<0.05). L-carnitine increased both thigh meat (P<0.05) and breast muscle percentages (P<0.01). The diets T3 and T4 reduced abdominal fat percentage (P<0.05). Diet T4 had a significant effect on fabricious bursa weight (P<0.05). The T3 and T5 diets had a significant effect on spleen weight (P<0.05). The diets with L-carnitine had a significant effect on heart weight (P<0.05). The results showed that adding L-carnitine in diet had no significant effect on blood parameters (P>0.05). Adding L-carnitine had a significant effect on Newcastle disease antibody titer at day 32 (P<0.05) but it had no significant effect on Newcastle disease antibody titer at day 42 (P>0.05).

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