Abstract
In this study we investigated the comparative efficacy of blend of Olive oil, Black seed oil and Flax seed oil versus solitary
use of these oils on growth performance and meat quality in broiler chicken. For this purpose chicks (n=210; strain-Ross) were
offered following treatments in antibiotic free diet: A; Olive oil at rate of 1.0%, B; Black seed oil at rate of 0.5%, C; Flax seed
oil at rate of 0.5%, and treatments D, E and F were prepared adding blend of oils (i.e. 50% Olive oil+25% Black seed oil+25%
Flax seed oil) at rate of 0.5, 1.0 and 1.5%, respectively. The treatment G (control) was comprised of broiler feed with added
antibiotic growth promoter. The treatments were offered from 1 to 35th day of broiler age. The poorest (P<0.05) body weight,
feed intake and FCR were recorded in treatments A and B compared with all other treatments, while, rest of the treatments did
not differ significantly for these parameters. No detectable differences for hematological parameters were observed except for
WBCs and RBCs between the treatments. Serum cholesterol, triglycerides and low-density lipoproteins (LDL) were
significantly higher, conversely high density lipoproteins (HDL) were the lowest (P < 0.05) in treatment G compared with all
to other treatments. Treatments A and G had the lowest (P<0.05) intestinal (whole) weights compared with all other treatments.
The concentration of oleic acid was highest in treatment F, linoleic acid in B and linolenic acid in C, however from the blend
of oils F had reasonably good concentrations of these fatty acids. The profit was highest in treatment D (i.e. 0.5% of blend of
oils) and lowest in treatment A. We concluded that addition of blend of 50% Olive oil+25% Black seed oil+25% Flax seed oil
to broiler diet can give comparable growth to that of the diet supplemented with antibiotic growth promoters and it enriches
the meat with reasonable amount of desirable fatty acids.
