Body gains and fatty acid composition in carcasses of broilers fed diets enriched with full-fat rapeseed and/or flaxseed

The aim of the experiment was to enrich the broiler chick en carcass with l ong chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (LC-PUFA) of n-3 family: eicosapentae noic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) by feeding birds diets suppl emented with full-fat rapeseed and/or flaxseed. At 10th day of life birds w ere divided into 4 groups of 150. Each group was fed different pelleted die ts: control diet (C) or diet supplemented with 8% full-fat rapeseed or of 8 % full-fat flaxseed or 6% R + 6% F. Oil seeds without previous cracking wer e added to concentrate before pelleting. Oil seeds supplemented diets were additionally enriched with 9 mg alpha-tocopherol acetate per 1 g of unsatur ated fatty acids. At the age of 7 weeks all broilers were slaughtered, Body weight, food intake and food utilization were similar in all groups, but f inal body weight was significantly higher in the group II (6% R + 6% F) vs. remaining groups. Total amount of fat was highest in the frozen samples, h igher in the leg muscles than in the breast muscles, and generally the high est content was found in the group II. Whereas the highest content of TBARS of breast and leg muscles has been noted in samples of birds supplemented with flaxseeds (8% F) of group IV, in comparison to the group II which had the highest fat content in the samples of muscles. Calculated muscle content (mg/100 g) of EPA and DHA reached the highest val ues in birds fed 6% R + 6% F diet and was about 2.8 - fold the value of bro ilers fed control diet. The n-3 LC-PUFA were similar in chilled and frozen/ thawed carcasses. In conclusion the mixture of R and F seeds is the better way to enrich broiler carcasses with n-3 LC-PUFA than using one of these se eds separately.