Response of Broiler Chicken in Terms of Growth and Efficiency, Carcass Characteristics, Sensory Quality of Meat and Serum Biochemical Profile to Different Lysine Levels in Flaxseed Based Diet

A 42-d experiment was conducted in a completely randomized design to evaluate the effect of lysine in flaxseed based diet on the growth performance, efficiency, carcass characteristics, sensory evaluation of meat and serum biochemistry of broiler chicken. Five diets were formulated with no flaxseed (FS) but normal (100%) lysine in first one (CON), while the other four diets contained 10% FS along with 100 (FS-L0), 105 (FS-L1), 115 (FS-L2), and 125 (FS-L3) per cent of the required levels of lysine. Each treatment was allocated 6 replicates with 8 birds in each at random. The feeding of FS-L3 diet resulted in significantly (P<0.01) better feed conversion ratio, production efficiency ratio, protein efficiency ratio, and energy efficiency ratio of birds followed by CON diet compared to other diets. No significant effects were found on various carcass traits except for the significantly (P<0.01) higher percentages of eviscerated weight, dressed weight and breast yield in birds fed either FS-L2 or FS-L3 diets. Significantly (P<0.01) higher meat: bone ratios in breast and thigh were observed in birds fed FS-L3 diet followed by CON diet compared to other diets. No dietary effects were observed on mortality pattern of birds and sensory evaluation of broiler chicken meat. Significant (P<0.05) and progressive reduction of serum cholesterol was observed in birds from CON diet to FS-L3 diet. The serum antioxidant enzyme activities and malonaldehyde concentration were significantly (P<0.01) lower in birds fed CON diet followed by FS-L3 and FS-L2 diets compared to FS-L1 and FS-L0 diets. From the present study it was concluded that 10% flaxseed can be used in broiler diet along with 125% of the BIS-recommended lysine without any adverse effect on broiler growth, efficiency, carcass traits and serum biochemical profile.