Effect of Chestnut Tannins and Vitamin E Supplementation to Linseed Oil-Enriched Diets on Growth Performance, Meat Quality, and Intestinal Morphology of Broiler Chickens

Abstract

The objective of this study was to establish the effects of chestnut tannin extract or vitamin E added to linseed oil-enriched diets on growth performance, meat quality, and intestinal morphology of broiler chickens. A total of 240 day-old Ross 308 male broiler chicks were included in trial. 5% of cold-pressed linseed oil was included in finisher diets (21–40 days), and three feeding treatments with four replicates were formed: finisher without additives; finisher + 200 IU vitamin E/kg; finisher + 500 mg/kg of chestnut wood tannin extract. No significant influence of treatments was established on body weight or feed conversion ratio. A negative effect on feed intake (p p p p p p < 0.05). It can be concluded that vitamin E supplementation improves carcass percentage and breast meat yield, while chestnut tannins improve the intestinal morphology of broiler chickens when added to oil-enriched diets.

Keywords

• tannins
• vitamin E
• broiler
• performance
• meat
• gut morphology