RELATIONSHIP OF DIETARY-FAT AND LYSINE LEVEL WITH BODY-COMPOSITION INBROILER-CHICKENS

The effect of dietary fat and/or lysine supplementation on the body co mposition of broiler chickens was studied. Body composition was measur ed by computed tomography (CT) and direct chemical analysis. Cockerel chicks from a previous experiment (Fekete et al., 1992) were used in t his study. Ten chickens from each treatment group were euthanised, dee p frozen and subjected to CT. Subsequently the bodies were dissected a nd ground to obtain homogeneous samples for chemical analysis. Supplem entation of the diet with 6 g/kg lysine did not change total body comp osition but positively influenced the final body weight. In the treatm ent group receiving 40 g/kg added fat and 3 g/kg feed lysine (F-LYS-I) the higher body weight ran parallel with a higher fat content. The.di fference between the frozen body weight and final live body weight sho ws that lysine supplementation increased the water-holding capacity of muscle, which was the best in groups receiving a diet of normal energ y content plus high lysine supplementation.