This experiment was done to study the influence of adding sunflower oil ,
cotton seed oil, coconut oil and tallow on the performance of laying quails and fatty
acids composition in the muscles of males and females. Also, total lipids, FFA%, acid
value, peroxide value ,TBA and some blood constituents were also measured. One
hundred and fifty laying quails were used in this experiment and divided to five'
treatments and fed on isoenrgetic & isoproteinic diet. The fifth group WLS fed on basal
diet (control), while, the other four groups were supplemented with 1 % sunflower,
cotton, coconut oil or tallow in the diet. The results indicated that ,live body weight
and feed efficiency did not affected by supplementation of different sources of lipids.
Birds performance decreased at 18 weeks than at 14 weeks. Liver weight increased
in birds that fed tallow than other treatment, while heart weight at age 18 weeks
decreased significantly in birds that fed cotton than other treatments. Cholesterol level
decreased significantly (P< 0.05) in birds that fed sunflower & control than other
treatments but PCV % did not changed by treatments. Total protein increased
significantly (P < 0.05) in birds fed tallow. Increasing the amount of accumulated total
lipids in males than females also increased fat ratio in breast than thigh muscles.
Decreased FFA% , acid value and peroxide value in males than females in all
treatments. FFA % , acid value, peroxide value and TBA value were higher in thigh
than breast in almost lipids. Saturated I unsaturated ratio decreased in almost oils
after supplementation these oils in the diet especially the birds that fed tallow. So,
supplementation of vegetable oils especially sunflower oil decreased accumulation
of fats in breast & thigh and modifies caturatcd to unsaturated fatty acids and the
latter more healthy to consumers.