Moderate modifications to broiler feed could yield healthier broiler meat, providing the increased content of selenium and omega 3 fatty acids believed to benefit human health, say researchers from Norway.

In their study, four different wheat-based dietary treatments supplemented with 5% rapeseed oil or 4% rapeseed oil plus 1% linseed oil, and either 0.50 mg selenium or 0.84 mg selenium (organic form) per kg diet, was fed to newly hatched broilers for 22 days, report Anna Haug of the Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Norway, and her associates.

The different dietary treatments gave distinctly different concentrations of selenium and fatty acids in thigh muscle; 1% linseed oil in the diet increased the concentration of the omega 3 fatty acids 18: 3, 20:5 and 22:5, and 0.84 mg selenium per kg diet gave a muscle selenium concentration that was the same level as found in fish muscle (0.39 mg/kg muscle). High selenium intake also resulted in increased concentration of the long chain omega 3 fatty acids EPA (20:5), DPA (22:5) and DHA (22:6).

It can be speculated that high dietary selenium might have a role in increasing the concentration of EPA, DPA and DHA in tissues after intake of plant oils containing omega 3 fatty acids, the researchers say in the October 2007 issue of Lipids in Health and Disease.

Spring 2008

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