Journal article

Publication year: 1998

Pages: 260-268

Journal: Journal of Animal Physiology and Animal Nutrition

Volume number: 79

Issue number: 5

ISSN: 0931-2439

DOI Link: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1439-0396.1998.tb00649.x

Publisher: Wiley

Abstract: 
The present study was performed to investigate the effect of feeding diets with various amounts of ground or whole flaxseed on the live performance and fatty acid composition of lipids from meat in fattening chicks. Therefore, an experiment was carried out with 316 day-old chicks which according to a hi-factorial experimental design were fed either a control diet without flaxseed or test diets containing 5 or 7.5% of flaxseed, either whole or ground over an experimental period of 6 weeks. All the diets were formulated to be isocaloric (13.0 MJ MEN.corr per kg) and isonitrogenic (24.0% crude protein). Feeding diets with both, whole and ground flaxseed slightly reduced the body weight gains of the animals by 7% on average compared with those fed the control diets without flaxseed. The reduced body weight gains in the chicks that were fed flaxseed were caused by increased feed conversion ratio which was significantly elevated by diets containing 7.5% of flaxseed. The feed intake was not influenced by feeding flaxseed. The study therefore suggests that regarding animal performance, flaxseed should be limited to a maximum of 5% in broiler diets. Feeding flaxseed influenced the fatty acid composition of lipids in a dose-dependent way. However, the extent of those alterations clearly depended on the structure of the flaxseed. Feeding ground flaxseed markedly reduced the percentages of saturated and mono-unsaturated fatty acids and markedly increased the percentages of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA), particularly of cc-linolenic acid. As a consequence thereof, chicks fed on ground flaxseed also exhibited an increased double bond index (1.10 in chicks fed 7.5% ground flaxseed versus 0.78 in chicks fed on the control diet) and P/S ratio (1.15 versus 0.53) and a reduced ratio between n-6 and n-3 PUFA (1.29 versus 5.03). Whole flaxseed caused alterations of the fatty acid profile which had the same direction as those caused by whole flaxseed. However, the effects of whole flaxseed on the fatty acid composition mere relatively small compared with those of ground flaxseed. These results suggest that lipids from whole flaxseed are less intestinally available than those from ground flaxseed. The effects of flaxseed on the fatty acid composition of meat from fattening chickens are discussed with regard to the dietetic properties of chicken meat.

Harvard Citation style: Roth-Maier, D., Eder, K. and Kirchgeßner, M. (1998) Live performance and fatty acid composition of meat in broiler chickens fed diets with various amounts of ground or whole flaxseed, Journal of Animal Physiology and Animal Nutrition, 79(5), pp. 260-268. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1439-0396.1998.tb00649.x

APA Citation style: Roth-Maier, D., Eder, K., & Kirchgeßner, M. (1998). Live performance and fatty acid composition of meat in broiler chickens fed diets with various amounts of ground or whole flaxseed. Journal of Animal Physiology and Animal Nutrition. 79(5), 260-268. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1439-0396.1998.tb00649.x