Effects of dietary fat on the fatty acid composition of turkey embryos

Abstract

Previous work has shown that both amount and type of fat in the diet of Beltsville Small White turkey hens affects the fatty acid content of the egg yolks. The objective of this study was to determine what effect the fatty acid content of the yolks may have on the fatty acid content of BSW embryos and embryo organs at different stages of development. Laying turkey hens were divided into five groups, four of which were fed synthetic rations containing (1) 0% fat; (2) 3% soybean oil; (3) 30% soybean oil; (4) 3% neatsfoot. The fifth group was fed a practical soybean oil meal-milo turkey breeder diet. Embryos from each material treatment were removed for fatty acid determinations after 10, 17 and 21 days incubation as follows: The ten-day embryos from each group were analyzed whole; hearts and livers of 17 and 21-day old embryos from each diet and from hatched poults were analyzed. The fatty acid content of the remaining portions of the embryos was determined. The fatty acid composition of the yolk sac polar and neutral lipids at 10, 17 and 21-day and in the hatched poult were determined. Fatty acid were divided into neutral and polar fractions with a total of 29 fatty acids being analyzed from each fraction. Analysis of variance was used to determine if there were any statistically significant differences in the amounts of fatty acids present in each sample. Duncan's multiple range test was used to indicate the significance of treatment and sampling differences. ...