Metabolic Effects of Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids in Chickens: A Review

Chicken has been used as a suitable model for lipid metabolism studies, because dietary modifications especially dietary fat type can change chicken body composition. Fats act as a condense source of energy and certain fatty acids such as polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) are required for both animal and human health. The n-3 PUFAs, especially, eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) are well known for their favourable effects on human health. The n-3 PUFAs act as feed originated modulators of fatty acid oxidation and are feedback inhibitors of new fatty acid synthesis. This regulatory mechanism not only decreases overall liver lipid content and VLDL secretion, but also removes excessive very long-chain PUFA from cell membranes that may cause oxidant stress or damage membrane integrity. This paper reviews in brief the most important metabolic effects of PUFA in chickens.