Effect of Conjugated Linoleic Acid on Performance and Small Intestine Morphology of Broiler Chickens

The effects of conjugated linileic acid on performance and small intestinemorphology were studied using 300 broiler chickens in a compeletly randomized designwith 5 treatments and 4 replicates and 15 chickens in each replicate. The experimentaldiets were contained 7% soybean oil, 7% CLA, 3.5% CLA + 3.5% soybean oil, 10%hydrogenated oil and control oil free diet. The lowest weight gain and feed intake wereobserved in the group fed with 7% CLA, but this treatment improved feed conversionratio. The villi hieght was reduced in duodenum section of birds fed with diet containingsoybean oil or control, but in ileum section just the soybean oil diet caused the sameeffect. The chicks fed with 3.5% soybean oil + 3.5% CLA had the highest villi length.The diets with 7% soybean oil and 3.5% soybean oil + 3.5% CLA decreased epitheliumthickness. Crypth depth in duodenum and jejunum increased with 3.5% soybean oil +3.5% CLA diet so that the differences with other treatmernt were significant ecxept withthe 7% soybean oil diet in duodenum. The results of the present study showed that CLAat 7% level adversly affect performance but the diet containing 3.5% CLA improvedmorphological parameters of small intestine especially villi length.