The Effects of L-Carnitine and Different Levels of Animal Fat on Performance, Carcass Characteristics, some Blood Parameters and Immune Response in Broiler Chicks

This study was conducted to investigate the effects of L-carnitine and different levels of animal fat on performance, carcass characteristics and some blood parameters of broiler chickens. Two hundred one-day old male broiler chicks were allotted to5 treatments in 4 replicates and 10 birds in each replicate. Dietary treatments consisted of: 1) diet with 5% vegetable oil (T1), 2) diet with 5% vegetable oil + 300 mg/kg Lcarnitine (T2), 3) diet with 4% animal fat + 300 mg/kg L-carnitine (T3), 4) diet with 5% animal fat + 300 mg/kg L-carnitine (T4) and 5) diet with 6% animal fat + 300 mg/kg L-carnitine (T5). The dietary treatments had not significant effect on body weight gain in days 1-21 (P>0.05). The body weight of chicks fed T4 diet was increased in days 22-42 and whole period of the experiment (P 0.05). Adding L-carnitine had a significant effect on Newcastle disease antibody titer at day 32 (P 0.05).