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Journal of Biological Sciences

Year: 2008 | Volume: 8 | Issue: 2 | Page No.: 362-367
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Authors

R. Jahanian

H.R. Rahmani

Keywords

Research Article

The Effect of Dietary Fat Level on the Response of Broiler Chicks to Betaine and Choline Supplements

R. Jahanian and H.R. Rahmani
This study was conducted to investigate the effect of dietary betaine (Betafine) supplementation as a replacement for choline on broiler performance and carcass characteristics. Three betaine replacement levels (0, 50 and 100% in substitution for choline) were used in two various basal diets (without or containing 30 g kg-1 oil) in a 2x3 factorial arrangement with four replicates of 10 birds. Two hundred-forty day-old broiler chicks were fed with the experimental diets from 1 to 49 days of age and at 49 days of age, two birds from each replicate were selected randomly for blood sampling and comparison of carcass characteristics. Dietary betaine inclusion had no effect on feed intake, but the significant differences in body weight (BW) gain (at 1-3 and 3-5 weeks of age) and feed conversion ratio (at 3-5 weeks of age) were observed among the experimental diets. Replacing choline with betaine increased (p<0.05) dressing and breast meat percentages and reduced (p<0.01) abdominal fat percent, but had no significant effect on thigh and liver weight percentages. Plasma levels of cholesterol and low density lipoproteins (LDL) were not affected by dietary substitution of betaine for choline. Dietary betaine replacement caused a significant decrease in plasma triglycerides (p<0.05) and very low density lipoproteins (p<0.01) and significant increase in (p<0.05) high density lipoproteins (HDL). These findings indicate that although dietary betaine inclusion instead of choline had little benefit in terms of performance parameters, but resulted favourable changes in abdominal fat and breast meat percentages.
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