Effect of dietary cereal grain, citrus pectin, and guar gum on liver fat in laying hens and young chicks.

One laying hen and three chick experiments were conducted to study the effect of cereal grains, citrus pectin, and guar gum on liver fat of chicks and hens and on serum cholesterol of chicks. Feeding of wheat, rye, or 2% pectin in place of corn reduced liver fat content. The decrease in liver fat of hens fed wheat or rye was larger than that of those fed 2% pectin (P less than .05). The smallest amount of liver fat was found in livers of hens fed the rye diet. Wheat or pectin did not affect egg production of egg weight, but rye caused a significant decline in egg production in comparison with other treatments. Addition of 4% pectin or 2% guar gum to the corn control diet lowered liver fat, serum cholesterol (P less than .05), and body weight in chicks (P less than .05). Penicillin added to the diets containing 2% guar gum gave an increase in body weight (P less than .05) but had no effect on body weight of chicks fed diets containing 4% pectin. In contrast, pectinase prevented growth depression by pectin and guar gum. Pectinase also increased liver fat and serum cholesterol of birds fed the diet containing pectin or guar gum. When the corn control diet was pair-fed to the pectin diet, growth of the pair-fed chicks was better than that of the pectin-fed birds but was lower than that of birds fed the control diet ad libitium. Pectin-fed birds again had lower liver fat the serum cholesterol than the control birds. The reduced feed intake of chicks pair-fed the corn control diet had no effect on liver fat content.