Lipid: the unidentified factor for alleviating fatty liver syndrome

Laying hens were fed diets based on either corn-soybean meal (CS) or wheat-soybean meal (WS). The WS diets were formulated to be isocaloric to the CS diet by supplementing with either corn oil, corn starch, or wheat starch. Hens fed the WS diets with either of the starches had significantly (P less than or equal to .01) higher percentages of hepatic lipid than those fed WS diets with corn oil. Values for hepatic lipid of hens fed the CS diets were intermediate to those of the wheat-based diets. The supplementation of fish meal or a selenium salt to supply .4 mg Se per kilogram of diet did not prevent or alleviate the problem of fatty livers caused by feeding diets composed mostly of wheat-soy and starch. The data revealed that wheat does not have an unidentified factor preventing FLS. The indication is that lipid at proper amounts in the diet acts through feed-back mechanisms to prevent excessive hepatic lipid accumulation that starches enhance.