EFFECTS OF LINSEED OIL FEEDING ON CARCASS TRAITS AND MEAT COMPOSITION IN BROILER CHICKENS
JYOTI SHUNTHWAL*, SAJJAN SIHAG, MADHU SUDAN GURAY AND NANCY SHEORAN
Department of Animal Nutrition, College of Veterinary Sciences,
LLR University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences,
Hisar-125004, Haryana, India
*(e-mail : jyotishunthwal.112@gmail.com)
(Received : 5 September 2017; Accepted : 25 September 2017)
SUMMARY
A study was carried out in the Department of Animal Nutrition at LUVAS, Hisar, in the year 2015. This study was aimed to investigate the effect of replacing sunflower oil with linseed oil on carcass traits and meat quality of broiler chickens. A total of 300 day-old commercial broiler chicks were procured and randomly distributed into five treatments, each treatment had six replicates with ten chicks in each. Growth trial of 6 weeks was conducted in a complete randomized design comprising five dietary treatment groups. The control group (T1) was on basal diet with sunflower oil as per BIS 2007 specification, while T2, T3, T4 and T5 were fed with linseed oil replacing sunflower oil of control group @ 25, 50, 75 and 100%, respectively. Treatment groups with linseed oil had no significant effect on dressing percentage and eviscerated yield compared to control group. Giblet percentage of all dietary treatments with linseed oil was significantly lower (P<0.05) than the control group. Moisture and crude protein of the breast and thigh muscle were not affected by inclusion of different levels of linseed oil. Whereas, the fat content of breast muscle with 50, 75 and 100%; and of thigh muscle with 75 and 100% linseed oil supplementation was significantly lower (P<0.05) than the control group. Result showed significant (P<0.05) difference in saturated fatty acid (SFA) and Poly unsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) content of breast and thigh muscle as compared to the control group. The SFA (palmitic acid and stearic acid) content of thigh muscle in dietary treatment group with 75 and 100% replacement with linseed oil decreased significantly (P<0.05) as compared to control group. However, the SFA content of breast muscle in each level of linseed oil decreased significantly (P<0.05) as compared to control group. Mono unsaturated fatty acid (MUFA), the oleic acid decreased (P<0.05) in group having linseed oil at the level of 50,75 and 100% as compared to control group in both muscles. The n-6 PUFA linoleic acid and arachidonic acid content in both breast and thigh muscles decreased at the level of 50, 75 and 100% sunflower oil replacement with linseed oil than the control group. The n-3 PUFA linolenic acid content increased significantly (P<0.05) in all groups with different linseed oil (25, 50, 75 and 100%) levels as compared to the sunflower oil group. A significant increase in poly-unsaturated FA (PUFA), n-3 FA and a significant decrease in n-6:n-3 were noticed in breast and thigh muscle due to dietary incorporation of linseed oil in the diets, the effect being more pronounced at the highest level of supplementation. The results of study inferred that supplementation of linseed oil in ration of broilers improves the quality of meat in terms of increased n3 PUFA proportion with lean meat production which is beneficial for human health.
Key words: Linseed oil, broiler, breast, thigh, saturated fatty acid, poly unsaturated fatty acid, mono unsaturated fatty acid