Abstract
The experiment was performed to evaluate the effect of dietary fat on growth performance, digestibility of fat and protein in broiler chickens. The experiment was designed to test corn oil CO, beef tallow BT and a blend of corn oil and tallow COBT (50:50%) each with the level of 2, 4, and 6 %, using a complete randomized block design. The feeds were formulated to maintain a constant ratio of energy to protein. There were no significant differences in feed intake and protein efficiency ratio. Birds fed diets with the inclusion of fat had the highest body weight and feed efficiency these differences were significant compared to the control group (no added fat. Bodyweight gain and feed efficiency significantly (p < 0.05) improved with fat addition, corn oil showed a higher improvement than tallow and blended COBT fat. The inclusion of fat exhibited a higher body weight gain by 9%, 6%, and 9% for CO, BT, and COBT respectively as well as the feed efficiency significantly (p<0.01) increased by 11%, 4%, and 3% for CO, BT, and COBT respectively, in comparison to the control group. Broilers fed on diets containing fat showed higher fat retention and protein accretion than those fed on control diets. While CO showed significant higher protein retention than BT and blended fat COBT. The results of this study indicated that the supplementation of corn oil at 4, and 6% had the best improvements in growth performance and this could be explained in part by its positive effect on fat and protein digestibility. Therefore it is concluded that adding fat-based diets improved broiler performance and feed utilization.