Feeding high-oleic peanuts to meat-type broiler chickens enhances the fatty acid profile of the meat produced

Authors: Toomer, Ondulla; LIVINGSTON, MATTHEW - North Carolina State University; WALL, BRITTANY - North Carolina State University; SANDERS, ELLIOT - North Carolina State University; Vu, Thien; MALHEIROS, R - North Carolina State University; LIVINGSTON, KIMBERLY - North Carolina State University; CARVALHO, LUIZ VICTOR - North Carolina State University; FERKET, PETER - North Carolina State University; Dean, Lisa

Submitted to: Poultry Science
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 11/3/2019
Publication Date: 4/1/2020
Citation: Toomer, O.T., Livingston, M., Wall, B., Sanders, E., Vu, T.C., Malheiros, R., Livingston, K., Carvalho, L., Ferket, P.R., Dean, L.L. 2020. Feeding high-oleic peanuts to meat-type broiler chickens enhances the fatty acid profile of the meat produced. Poultry Science. 99:2236-2245. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psj.2019.11.015.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psj.2019.11.015

Interpretive Summary: In years past, normal-oleic peanuts were identified as a suitable poultry feed ingredient. However, no studies to date have examined the use of whole high-oleic peanuts with the skin intact as a feed ingredient for poultry and determined the impact of feeding high-oleic peanuts on the chemistry of the meat produced. Thus we conducted a study in which 300 broiler chickens were fed a soybean control diet, whole high-oleic peanut diet, or a control diet spiked with oleic oil for 6 weeks. At 6 weeks, 10 broilers/treatment were processed to determine fatty acid and amino acid content of the chicken breast produced. This study demonstrated that chicken breast produced from broiler chickens fed a diet containing whole high-oleic peanuts with the skin intact had reduced trans- and saturated fatty acids relative to the other treatment groups. The benefits of this project could potentially have a positive economic impact on the peanut and poultry industry due to the identification of whole high-oleic peanuts as a preferable feed ingredient for poultry.

Technical Abstract: Early feeding trials using peanut meal prepared from normal-oleic peanuts helped to identify peanuts as a suitable alternative feed ingredient for poultry. Yet no studies to date have examined the use of high-oleic peanuts (HO-PN) as a feed ingredient for meat type chickens. Therefore, this study aimed to determine the effect of feeding whole unblanched HO-PN on the fatty acid profile of the meat produced from broilers. At hatch male chicks were randomly placed in raised wire cages, in 10 replicate pens per treatment with 10 chicks per pen, and fed with one of the 3 isocaloric, isonitrogenous diets ad libitum for 42 days: (1) conventional control of soybean meal 1 corn, (2) 10 to 12% HO-PN and corn diet, or (3) control diet spiked with almost equal to 6.0% oleic acid oil. All body weights (BW) were collected, and broiler selection for processing was determined by individual BW within one-half a standard deviation of the experiment 42-D mean BW, with one bird selected per pen (10 replicate pens per treatment, 3 treatments, 10 birds selected per treatment, yielding a total sample size of 30 birds). Performance was determined weekly and breast samples were analyzed for fatty acid and amino acid profile. All data was analyzed using analysis of variance, with t-test mean comparisons at P less than 0.05. BW were similar between broilers fed the HO-PN and control diet, while feed conversion ratio of broilers fed the HO-PN diet was significantly higher at weeks 2, 4, and 6 in comparison to the other treatments (P less than or equal to 0.03). Broilers fed with HO-PN diet had reduced carcass and pectoralis major weights in comparison to the other treatments. Chicken breast from broilers fed the HO-PN diet had significantly reduced saturated and trans fatty acid content in comparison to the controls (P less than or equal to 0.0002). Although additional studies must be conducted, this study suggests that feeding whole unblanched HO-PN to broiler chickens may serve as a means to enrich the meat produced with unsaturated fatty acids.