Effect of Dietary Phospholipids on Performance, Intestinal morphology and Fat Digestibility in Broiler Chicks

The experiment was conducted to evaluate the effect of phospholipid (Lecithin) supplementation on growth performance, intestinal morphology and fat digestibility of broilers. A total of 360 one-day-old mix sexed broiler chicks (Ross 308) were randomly allocated to 6 dietary treatments, with 5 replicates and with12 chicks in each replicate. Experimental diets included of: A (basal diet without soybean oil); B (basal diet + soybean oil); C (basal diet without soybean oil + 2 g/kg phospholipid; D (basal diet + soybean oil + 2 g/kg phospholipid); E (basal diet without soybean oil + 2 g/kg phospholipid minus 100 kcal/kg ME); F (basal diet + soybean oil + 2 g/kg phospholipid minus 100 kcal/kg ME). Body weight and weight gain of broilers significantly increased when they fed on B treatment (P<0.05); while, feed intake and feed conversion ratio significantly increased in A treatment (P<0.05). Abdominal fat was significantly decreased when the birds fed on D and E treatments (P<0.05). The fat digestibility in birds received F treatment was significantly higher than other diets (P<0.05). The villous height to crypt depth in jejunum and ileum of broilers fed on F treatment significantly higher than other diets (P<0.05). In conclusion, supplementation of phospholipid into broilers diet enhanced fat digestibility, villous height to crypt depth ratio of ileum and jejunum at 42 days of age. Additionally, feeding broilers with diet contain soybean oil improved feed intake (FI), body weight (BW) and weight gain (WG) (P<0.05); although, lowest feed conversion ratio (FCR) was obtained in basal diet + soybean oil + 2 g/kg phospholipid (P<0.05).