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Asian Journal of Animal and Veterinary Advances

Year: 2017 | Volume: 12 | Issue: 6 | Page No.: 274-283
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Authors

Janine Donaldson

Janine Donaldson

Michael Taurai Madziva

Kennedy Honey Erlwanger

Keywords

Background and Objective: Fats are often added to poultry diets to increase growth performance and productivity. The effects of increased dietary fat consumption in guinea fowl and muscovy ducks are unknown, which may have consequences for poultry production costs and the formulation of species-specific diets. The current study investigated the effects of a diet rich in saturated fatty acids on glucose tolerance, serum metabolic health parameters and the liver of guinea fowl and muscovy ducks. Materials and Methods: Twenty four guinea fowl and 24 muscovy ducks were divided into two groups/species and fed either a standard or high-fat diet (enriched with 20% palm oil and 2% lard) over 8 weeks. After 4 and 8 weeks on the diets, six birds from each group were fasted overnight, subjected to an oral glucose tolerance test, re-fed for 72 h and then euthanized. Blood and liver samples were collected. Means between birds in the standard and high-fat diet groups, within each bird species at each time point were compared with a student’s t-test (p<0.05), using Graphpad 5 prism software. Results: The high-fat diet had no significant effects on the glucose tolerance parameters investigated or on the liver lipid content in both bird species. Significantly increased serum cholesterol concentrations were observed in birds that received the high-fat diet versus those that received the standard diet, in both bird species. Conclusion: The metabolic health of the birds was maintained following consumption of the high-fat diet and thus the diet would be safe for use during production of these alternative poultry species.
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