Effect of Dietary Cereal Grain, Citrus Penctin, and Guar Gum on Liver Fat in Laying Hens and Young Chicks

Abstract One laying hen and three chick experiments were conducted to study the effect of cereal grains, citrus pectin, and guar gum on liver fat of chicks and hens and on serum cholesterol of chicks. Feeding of wheat, rye, or 2% pectin in place of corn reduced liver fat content. The decrease in liver fat of hens fed wheat or rye was larger than that of those fed 2% pectin (P Addition of 4% pectin or 2% guar gum to the corn control diet lowered liver fat, serum cholesterol (P When the corn control diet was pair-fed to the pectin diet, growth of the pair-fed chicks was better than that of the pectin-fed birds but was lower than that of birds fed the control diet ad libitium. Pectin-fed birds again had lower liver fat and serum cholesterol than the control birds. The reduced feed intake of chicks pair-fed the corn control diet had no effect on liver fat content.