Study the effects of different levels of fat and L- carnitine on performance and carcass characteristics of broiler chicks

An experiment was conducted in order to study the effect of 3 levels of fat (1, 3, 5%), and 2 levels of L-carnitine (0, 250 mg/kg) on 360 male Ross broiler chicks in a factorial arrangement (2×3) with completely randomized design with 6 treatments, 4 replicates, and 15 chicks in each replicates. All diets were isocaloric and isonitrogenous and were fed to chicks from 1 to 42 days of ages. During the experiment feed intake, body weight gain, and feed conversion ratio were measured weekly. Mortality was measured throughout the experiment. At 42 days of ages 4 birds from each treatment were slaughtered for determination carcass characteristics. Data of the experiment were analyzed by GLM procedure of SAS. Increasing of fat in the diets significantly improved performance of chicks in grower (22 to 42 days) and whole period (1 to 42 days) of the experiment (P<0.05). Chicks fed with diets containing 3% fat had the highest breast meat and lowest abdominal fat percentage (P<0.05). Adding L-carnitine to diets hadn't significant effect on performance and carcass characteristics. Interaction between fat and Lcarnitine was significant on liver weight (P<0.05). Dietary treatments hadn't significant effect on mortality.