Effects of Methionine, Menhaden Oil and Ethoxyquin on Serum Cholesterol of Chicks

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Abstract
A study was conducted to determine whether either a dietary antioxidant or a fish oil supplement would affect the hypercholesterolemic action of a suboptimal level of dietary methionine in chicks. A 23 factorial experiment was conducted with chicks fed a purified diet high in tallow, low in methionine and supplemented with methionine, ethoxyquin, and menhaden oil. Eight comparisons were made to determine how total serum cholesterol or fatty acid composition of tissue lipids were affected by the 3 variables, including interaction of one variable with another. Serum cholesterol determinations showed highly significant differences with high methionine resulting in lowered serum cholesterol values in all comparisons. The menhaden oil supplement also resulted in highly significant reductions of serum cholesterol values in all comparisons. These effects of menhaden oil and methionine supplementation were additive with no evidence of interaction. The reduction of cholesterol values by the added antioxidant was significant only when all 8 groups were compared. The added antioxidant did not counteract the hypocholesterolemic action of the fish oil, in contrast with a reported effect using rats. Fatty acid compositions of tissue lipids were largely determined by composition of the dietary lipids although there were some minor effects ascribable to methionine supplementation.