Effects of increasing dietary concentrations of specific structured triacylglycerides on performance and nitrogen and energy metabolism in broiler chickens.

Specific structured triacylglycerides (STG) containing medium chain fatty acids in sn-1,3 positions and a long chain fatty acid in sn-2 position were prepared from rapeseed oil and capric acid (C10:0). A total of 80 female broiler chickens (Ross 208) were randomly allocated into five dietary treatments as two series of 40 chicks: a basal diet with graded levels of STG of 0, 20, 40, 60 and 80 g/kg diet at the expense of rapeseed oil were fed to the chickens in groups of four. At 12 d of age the chickens were placed pair-wise in metabolism cages. The grower period (d 13-36) was divided into four consecutive balance periods each of 6 d. Two 24 h measurements of gas exchange in two open-air circuit respiration chambers were performed during the second and third day of each balance period. During the whole experiment there was a negative effect of the inclusion of STG on average feed intake. However, this only slightly affected average daily weight gain. Feed conversion efficiency improved linearly with the inclusion level of STG. Daily gain adjusted to mean daily feed intake increased linearly with inclusion rate of STG, indicating that the weight gain was affected by both feed intake and the enhancing effect on digestibility of STG. Weight of small intestine and colon decreased with increasing inclusion of STG. Utilisation of dietary protein relative to intake increased while that of retained fat tended to decrease resulting in a decreased utilisation of metabolisable energy (RE/ME) in birds receiving STG. Heat production (HE) was slightly lower in the STG groups. More of the dietary fat was oxidised when more STG was added, although the total amount of fat in the diets was kept constant.