Effects of Glucose Supplementation of High Lipid Diets Based on Free Fatty Acids for the Growing Chicken

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Abstract
Three experiments were conducted with chicks to evaluate the effects of glucose supplementation in diets high in soybean oil fatty acids (SOFA). Semipurified diets based on isolated soybean protein were used. The high fatty acid diet supplied 68% of total metabolizable calories as SOFA and the remaining 32% as protein. Supplemental glucose replaced an equicaloric amount of SOFA. Cellulose was added to maintain a mealy texture. The addition of glucose to the high fatty acid diet increased both food intake and growth. Over the range 1.5% to 18% glucose calories, the voluntary food intake provided nearly a constant amount of SOFA approximating 42 g/chick for the first 2 weeks. In contrast, the lipid intake of chicks fed the diets high in soybean oil was almost 60 g/chick. This suggests that food intake is regulated to avoid exceeding a limit on SOFA intake. The level of glucose in the blood of chicks fed the high SOFA diet was subnormal during the absorptive condition but increased to normal post-absorptive values after a fasting of 18 hours. Chicks fed diets high in SOFA were very lean, whereas those receiving the high soybean oil diet deposited as much fat as the reference group fed a high carbohydrate diet. The fatty acid composition of depot fat from chicks receiving the high lipid diets was highly unsaturated and resembled closely that of soybean oil.