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Abstract
1. This study was conducted to determine the effects of different dietary fat sources on growth performance, tibia fatty acids and biomarkers of bone metabolism in broilers.
2. One-d-old commercial Arbor Acres broilers were fed with a maize–soya bean basal diet for 42 d, supplemented with oils according to the following 5 treatments: lard (lard group); linseed oil (linseed oil group); palm oil (palm oil group); linseed oil + palm oil (60:40 or 40:60 w/w, LP-1 group and LP-2 group, respectively).
3. No significant differences in weight gain, feed intake and gain/feed ratio were observed between the lard and linseed oil groups. Birds fed on palm oil had significantly greater weight gain and feed intake than those fed on lard or linseed oil. Growth performance in LP-1 and LP-2 was significantly greater than that of single-oil groups.
4. Tibia growth and bone characteristics were not influenced by supplementation with lard, linseed oil, or palm oil alone, but broilers fed on a mixture of fats had significantly greater tibia weight and length compared to broilers fed on linseed oil. Bone mineral density in tibia was significantly increased in LP-1 and LP-2 groups.
5. Supplementation of linseed oil alone or in combination with palm oil enhanced apparent digestibility of calcium, reduced serum calcium and increased tibia calcium concentrations. Moreover, supplementation with linseed oil alone or in combination with palm oil had a positive effect on biomarkers of bone growth.
6. The combination of linseed and palm oils was beneficial for growth performance, tibia growth and biomarkers of bone metabolism.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This project was supported by a grant from National Natural Science Foundation of China (no. 30972116), Foundation of Nanjing Agricultural University (no. KJ2011010), the Specialized Research Fund for the Doctoral Program of Higher Education of China (no. 20110097120033), and A Project Funded by the Priority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions.