摘要：

This study has been conducted to determine the effects of inulin and/or car- nitine dietary supplementation on growth performance, carcass traits (hot carcass weights and yields), visceral organ masses (heart, liver, spleen, gizzard, bursa of Fabricius and abdominal fat) and blood biochemical parameters (cholesterol, triglyceride and total protein concentrations) in broilers fed with energy-depleted diets. For that, 80 one day old male Roos-308 broiler chickens were randomly assigned into 4 equal groups according to the supplementation of basal starter (from day 0 to day 21) (22.9% crude proteins and 2900 kcal/kg metabolisable energy) and finisher (from day 22 to day 42) (20.9% crude proteins and 3000 kcal/kg metabolisable energy) diets with carnitine (100 mg/kg of food/day), with 1% inulin, or both carnitine and inulin, the last group being not supple- mented and serving as controls. Body weights and food intakes were weekly measured allowing determination of body weight gains and food conversion ratios (FCR) calculated weekly or cumulated over a given period. At the end of the 42 day long experimental period, 8 birds in each group were slaughtered in order to determine carcass traits, organ masses and blood biochemical pa- rameters. Although differences between groups were not significant, birds supplemented with carnitine alone or in combination with inulin exhibited lower final body weights and cumulated weight gains on the finishing period than controls or birds supplemented with inulin. In parallel, food intakes were increased mainly in the starter period (P < 0.05 for the 1st week) and food ef- ficiency was altered during this period in birds treated with carnitine alone or associated with inulin whereas the lowest food intakes were found in birds treated with inulin alone. The weights of heart (and liver at a lesser extend) were significantly lowered whereas the abdominal fat deposits tended to be increased in carnitine supplemented birds compared to the other groups. Al- though these birds exhibited a low cholesterolemia, no significant difference in biochemical parameters was evidenced. These results indicate that the die- tary carnitine and/or inulin supplementation has not significantly improved the growth rate or the carcass traits in energy-depleted broilers.

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