Omega-3 fatty acid levels and general performance of commercial broilers fed practical levels of redfish meal

A total of 1,200 day-old Arbor Acre broiler chickens was randomly assigned to 12 pens (50 males and 50 females/pen) and divided into three blocks of four pens each. Each of four different diets was fed ad libitum to one pen of birds within each block to determine the effect of feeding practical levels of redfish meal (RFM) on performance and omega-3 fatty acid content of edible meat and skin lipids of broiler chickens. The four diets included (control) 0%, 4.0%, 8.0%, and 12.0% RFM. Feeding diets containing RFM had no effect on overall mortality or feed efficiency but resulted in decreased incidence of sudden death syndrome and lower body weight (P less than .01) and feed consumption (P less than .05). Additions of RFM to the diets resulted in a substantial dietary enrichment of omega-3 fatty acids (especially eicosapentaenoic acid, EPA or 20:5n-3, and docosahexaenoic acid, DHA or 22:6n-3). Analyses (wt/wt%) revealed that breast meat (less skin) was lower (P less than .001) in lipid and triglyceride but higher in free cholesterol (P less than .001) and phospholipid (P less than .001) than thigh meat (less skin). Dietary treatment had no effect on carcass lipid content or composition. Breast meat lipid contained more (P less than .001) omega-3 fatty acids (especially EPA and DHA), more docosapentaenoic acid, (DPA or 22:5n-3) and more total omega-3 polyunsaturated acids (n-3 PUFA) than thigh meat lipids. Feeding additional RFM resulted in an increased (P less than .001) accumulation of EPA, DPA, DHA, and total n-3 PUFA primarily at the expense of two omega-6 fatty acids, linoleic (18:2n-6) and arachidonic acid (20:4n-6). It can be calculated from the data presented that the consumption of 100 g of chicken that has been fed 12.0% RFM would contribute approximately 197 mg of omega-3 fatty acids (EPA + DPA + DHA) in contrast with the 138 mg of omega-3 fatty acids which would be realized from the consumption of 100 g of white fish such as cod.