Effect of synbiotic supplementation and dietary fat sources on broiler performance, serum lipids, muscle fatty acid profile and meat quality.

A 42-d trial was conducted to investigate the effect of adding a synbiotic supplement to diets containing two different types of fat on performance, blood lipids and fatty acid (FA) composition and oxidative stability of breast and thigh meat in broilers. A total of 800 one-d-old male broiler chickens were randomly assigned into 1 of 8 treatments with 4 replicates of 25 birds per treatment. The experiment consisted of a 4 × 2 factorial arrangement of treatments including 4 concentrations of synbiotic (0, 0.5, 1 or 1.5 g/kg diet) and 2 types of fat [sunflower oil (SO) or canola oil (CO)] at an inclusion rate of 50 g/kg diet. Dietary fat type did not affect body weight gain (BWG) or feed conversion ratio (FCR) during the overall experimental period (0-42 d). However, fat type modified serum lipid profile and FA composition and 2-thiobarbituric acid-reactive substances (TBARS) content in breast and thigh meat. The addition of synbiotic to the diet linearly improved overall BWG and FCR and also decreased serum cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol concentrations. The TBARS value in thigh meat after 30 d of storage at 4°C was linearly decreased as the synbiotic inclusion concentrations in the diets increased. Dietary synbiotic also decreased the proportion of monounsaturated fatty acids and increased n-6 polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) concentration in thigh meat, whereas the FA profile of breast meat was not affected by synbiotic supplementation. Moreover, the PUFA/SFA ratio in the breast meat was linearly increased when synbiotic was included in the CO-containing diets. In conclusion, the addition of synbiotic to broiler diets had a positive effect on growth performance, blood lipid profile and meat quality. The results also support the use of synbiotic to increase the capacity of canola oil for enhancing PUFA/SFA ratio of breast meat in broilers.