Omega-3 enriched broiler meat: The influence of dietary α-linolenic-ω-3 fatty acid sources on growth, performance and meat fatty acid composition

Western diets are typically low in ω-3 fatty acids, and high in saturated and ω-6 fatty acids. There is a need to increase dietary ω-3 fatty acid content. Chia (Salvia hispanica L.) has the highest botanical source of alpha-linolenic acid (ALA) known, and recently has been receiving more attention because of this. Feeding ALA to animals has been shown to increase the ω-3 fatty acid content of the foods they produce, and hence offers consumers an easy way to increase their intake of ω3 fatty acids without altering their diet. Broilers were fed rapeseed, flaxseed, chia seed and chia meal to assess the ability of these feed ingredients to increase the ω-3 fatty acid content of the meat, and also to determine whether any negative effects on bird production would arise. Flaxseed produced significantly (P < 0.05) lower body weights, weight gains and poorer conversion ratios than did the other feeds. Except in the case of the chia meal with the dark meat, the chia seed significantly (P < 0.05) reduced the saturated fatty acid (SFA) content of the white and dark meats compared with the control diet. Adding ALA increased the ALA, LCω-3 fatty acid and total polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) ω-3 fatty acid content of both meat types, except in the case of the white meat of the birds fed rapeseed. Chia seed gave the highest total PUFA ω-3 increase, yielding 157 and 200% increases for the dark and white meat, respectively, compared with the control. The ω-6:ω-3 and SFA:ω-3 ratios dramatically improved in both types of meat when chia seed, chia meal or flaxseed was added to the diet. The study also showed that not all ALA-rich seeds are biologically equivalent sources in terms of producing ω-3 enriched broiler meat. Chia proved to be superior to the other sources examined in this trial. Key words: Chia seed, flaxseed, rapeseed, omega-3, alpha-linolenic, broiler meat, fatty acid