The Effects of L-Carnitine and Different Levels of Animal Fat on Performance, Carcass Characteristics, some Blood Parameters and Immune Response in Broiler Chicks

This study was conducted to investigate the effects of L-carnitine and different levels of animal fat on per-formance, carcass characteristics and some blood parameters of broiler chickens. Two hundred one-day old male broiler chicks were allotted to5 treatments in 4 replicates and 10 birds in each replicate. Dietary treat-ments consisted of: 1) diet with 5% vegetable oil (T1), 2) diet with 5% vegetable oil + 300 mg/kg L-carnitine (T2), 3) diet with 4% animal fat + 300 mg/kg L-carnitine (T3), 4) diet with 5% animal fat + 300 mg/kg L-carnitine (T4) and 5) diet with 6% animal fat + 300 mg/kg L-carnitine (T5). The dietary treatments had not significant effect on body weight gain in days 1-21 (P > 0.05). The body weight of chicks fed T4 diet was increased in days 22-42 and whole period of the experiment (P < 0.05). The diet with L-carnitine and 5% animal fat had a significant effect on feed conversion ratio (P < 0.05). L-carnitine increased both thigh meat (P < 0.05) and breast muscle percentages (P < 0.01). The diets T3 and T4 reduced abdominal fat per-centage (P < 0.05). Diet T4 had a significant effect on fabricious bursa weight (P < 0.05). The T3 and T5 diets had a significant effect on spleen weight (P < 0.05). The diets with L-carnitine had a significant effect on heart weight (P < 0.05). The results showed that adding L-carnitine in diet had no significant effect on blood parameters (P > 0.05). Adding L-carnitine had a significant effect on Newcastle disease antibody titer at day 32 (P < 0.05) but it had no significant effect on Newcastle disease antibody titer at day 42 (P > 0.05).