The utilisation of various fats by turkeys of different ages

Abstract

1. The utilisation of fat and fatty acids supplied as maize oil, tallow or lard in the diet of 2-, 4- and 8-week old turkeys has been investigated: a mixture of 10% fat and 15% cellulose replaced glucose monohydrate in a low-fat basal diet. 2. At 2 weeks of age the absorbabilities of the fats were 96, 57 and 91% for maize oil, tallow and lard respectively; at 4 and 8 weekds of age the corresponding figures were 97, 70 and 92% and 98, 74 and 90%. 3. The unsaturated fatty acids (18:1, 18:2) were highly absorbed from all fats; this was true also of the saturated acids (16:0, 18:0) in the maize oil, but in lard and, especially, tallow the absorbability of these fatty acids was lower. 4. The effect of age on the utilisation of tallow could be explained by the improvement in the absorption of these fatty acids. 5. The determined and calculated ME values of the fats are given.