Influence of supplemental dietary fat on changes in vitamin E concentration in livers of poults.

An experiment was conducted to determine the influence of supplemental dietary fat on alpha-tocopherol (TOC) stored in the livers of young turkeys during the first 21 d after hatching. The four dietary treatments were obtained by supplementing a corn-soybean meal diet with 8% sucrose (SUC), 8% animal-vegetable fat (AVF), 8% tallow (TAL), or 8% coconut oil (COC). All diets were supplemented with 12 IU of dl-alpha-tocopheryl acetate (vitamin E)/kg of diet. Body weight at 21 d of age was not affected by dietary fat, whereas feed efficiency was improved (P < .05) by added fat, irrespective of source. Liver TOC (micrograms per gram of liver and micrograms per total liver weight) decreased markedly between 1 to 14 d of age, irrespective of fat source. Average TOC concentration in liver was 78.9 micrograms/g at 1 d, but was only .5 microgram/g at 14 d. Between 14 and 21 d of age, total liver TOC increased slightly in all treatment groups. No diet effect was observed on the liver TOC concentration until 21 d of age. At this time, poults fed TAL had less (P < .05) TOC in liver than those fed COC and AVF. The data show that neither the presence of supplemental dietary fat nor fat source changed the pattern of marked decrease in liver TOC during the first 14 d after hatching.