Effects of feeding fermented rapeseed meal on growth performance, gastrointestinal microflora population, blood metabolites, meat quality, and lipid metabolism in broiler chickens

• Published in: Livestock science 2018-10, Vol.216, p.183-190
• Main Authors: Ashayerizadeh, A., Dastar, B., Shargh, M. Shams, Mahoonak, A.R. Sadeghi, Zerehdaran, S.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Broiler chickens; Coliform bacteria; Fermented rapeseed meal; Growth performance; Superoxide dismutase activities
• ISSN: 1871-1413; 1878-0490
• DOI: 10.1016/j.livsci.2018.08.012

•The fermented rapeseed meal, compared with rapeseed meal, improves weight gain and feed conversion ratio in broiler chickens.•Using fermented rapeseed meal in the diet resulted in an increase lactic acid bacteria population in the crop.•The lowest serum cholesterol was observed in broiler chickens fed diets containing fermented rapeseed meal.•The fermented rapeseed meal improves the fatty acid profile of broiler meat. This study was conducted to evaluate the effects of replacing soybean meal (SBM) with rapeseed meal (RSM) or fermented rapeseed meal (FRSM) in diets on growth performance, gastrointestinal microflora population, blood metabolites, meat quality, and lipid metabolism in broiler chickens. Three hundred 1-d-old male broiler chickens were allocated to 5 dietary treatments with 4 pens and 15 chickens in each pen (including a corn-SBM control diet as well as 4 experimental diets in which 50 and 100% of SBM protein in the corn-SBM control diet was replaced with RSM or FRSM) in a completely randomized design. Broiler chickens fed diets containing 50 and 100% FRSM had greater weight gain (WG) and a better feed conversion ratio (FCR; P