Articles | Volume 58, issue 2
https://doi.org/10.5194/aab-58-387-2015
https://doi.org/10.5194/aab-58-387-2015
Original study
 | 
26 Oct 2015
Original study |  | 26 Oct 2015

Effects of dietary soybean and sunflower oils with and without L-carnitine supplementation on growth performance and blood biochemical parameters of broiler chicks

S. M. A. Jalali, R. Rabiei, and F. Kheiri

Abstract. An experiment was designed to investigate the effects of soybean, sunflower oil and dietary L-carnitine supplementation on growth performance, some blood biochemical parameters and antibody titer against Newcastle disease of broiler chicks. A 5-week feeding trial, 240 1-day old male broiler chicks (Ross 308) were randomly allocated to six dietary treatments as a 3 × 2 factorial experimental design where three sources of dietary oil contained soybean, sunflower and soybean plus sunflower oil with and without 120 mg kg−1 of L-carnitine supplementation in the diet. Results showed that soybean oil with L-carnitine significantly improved body weight gain and feed conversion ratio of broiler chicks in the grower and total period of rearing (p < 0.05). L-carnitine supplementation significantly increased total protein, globulin, cholesterol, HDL and LDL (high- and low-density lipoprotein) of blood serum in broiler chicks (p < 0.05). L-carnitine supplementation increased antibody titer against Newcastle disease of chicks and the highest levels were observed in those with the supplement of L-carnitine in the soybean oil dietary treatment. Results of this experiment showed that the growth performance and blood biochemical responses of broiler chicks to dietary supplementation with L-carnitine in dietary oil source and soybean oil, in comparison to sunflower oil, is the better plant oil for growth and immunological performance of broiler chicks.

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Short summary
Dietary plant oil sources and supplementation with L-carnitine have interaction effects on the physiological response and growth performance of broiler chicks. Addition of L-carnitine to diets which contained soybean oil showed the best growth performance of chicks in comparison to sunflower oil mixes.