Effects of Dietary Canola Seed with Rosemary Supplementation on Growth Performance, Lipid Oxidation and Meat Fatty Acid Composition of Broilers.

Abstract

This experiment was conducted to evaluate the effect of a diet containing full-fat canola seed and supplemented with rosemary leaves and vitamin C on broiler performance, carcass characteristics, meat fatty acid (FA) and lipid oxidation of broiler meat. One hundred thirty-five one-day old (d1) Hubbard-ISA male broilers were used. Two separate groups of birds were fed from d 15 to d 40 a diet containing 5% of canola seed (CS) and 27% of soybean meal (C). From d 40 to d 56 chicks were allocated to three homogeneous groups. One group was fed a control diet without antioxidant (C), while the other two groups were fed with (CS) supplemented with 10 g/kg of rosemary leaves (CSRL) or 200 mg/kg of vitamin C (CSVC). The diet containing 5% of canola seed (CS) had a significant negative effect (P<0.05) on performance parameters, this diet reduced chicken growth by almost 2% at 35, and 40 d compared to the control diet. However, no difference was noticed in the feed conversion ratio (FCR). Furthermore, performance parameters of chicks were generally improved by the addition of rosemary leaves and vitamin C. The inclusion of CS increased (P<0.05) the concentration of omega-3 FA (1.79 and 2.14 vs 0.85%), especially the proportion of α-linolenic acid (ALA) (1.24 and 1.53 vs 0.66%) and decreased the PUFA: SFA and the n-6: n-3 ratios. Dietary rosemary leaves were more effective (P<0.05) in inhibiting lipid oxidation of the thigh meat compared to vitamin C during storage at 4°C.