Effect of dietary supplementation of coconut oil on growth performance, carcass quality, intestinal histomorphology and coccidia oocysts in broilers

Abstract

The present study determined the effect of coconut oil supplementation in diet on growth performance, carcass quality, intestinal histomorphology and coccidia oocysts in broilers. A total of 360, seven-day-old, mixed-sex, Cobb 500 chicks fed in a pen. Chicks were randomly allotted in completely randomized design into 5 dietary treatments with 3 replications of 24 chicks. The experiment diets were five groups: 1) control diet (C), 2) control diet supplemented with 0.05% Salinomycin (CS), 3) 1% coconut oil diet (CO1), 4) 2% coconut oil diet (CO2) and 5) 3% coconut oil diet (CO3), respectively. The results showed that during 7-21 days of age chicks fed CO2 had greater feed conversion ratio (FCR) than CS and CO1 (1.36, 1.57 and 1.62, respectively) (P<0.05). During 21-49 days of age and overall 7-49 days of age, coconut oil application in diet had no on growth performance and carcass quality (P>0.05). Furthermore, the ratio of villus height to Crypt depth in duodenum and ilium was higher than control group (P<0.05) by supplementation with 2% coconut oil. The number of coccidia oocysts of broilers fed control diet supplemented with Salinomycin had the lowest in ilium (P<0.05). Additionally, supplementation with 1% coconut oil trend to reduce the number of coccidia oocysts in cecum. In conclusion, supplementation with 2% coconut oil in broiler diet improved feed conversion ratio during 7-21 days of age and intestinal histomorphology and the level of coconut oil 1% was likely to reduce number of coccidia oocysts in intestinal tract of broilers. Eventually, coconut oil had no effect on carcass quality.