The Fatty Acid Composition of Breast, Thigh, and Skin Tissues of Chicken Broilers as Influenced by Dietary Fats

RESEARCH in the past three decades in the field of fatty acid and lipid metabolism in chickens has been extensive. Most of the research on the deposition of fatty acids in tissues has been done with laying hens or very young chicks, while less attention has been directed toward chickens of broiler age. The work of Cruickshank (1934) on the lipid metabolism of chickens showed that only small differences existed in the iodine number of fats from different tissues of laying hens. More recently it has been shown in young chicks (Machlin and Gordon, 1961) and in mature hens (Marion and Edwards, 1963) that different fatty acid patterns exist in adipose and non-adipose (heart and liver) tissue. The majority of fatty acids found in the whole body of 3-week-old chicks are in the 16- and 18-carbon series although fatty acids of the 20- and 22-carbon series are deposited when the…