BACKGROUND: Using commercial antioxidants in the diet of chicken may cause cancer, liver swelling and changes in the activity of enzymes, hence their use is limited. Alternative herbal materials with antioxidant and antimicrobial properties can increase palatability, improve gastrointestinal function, improve the immune system and the performance of birds. OBJECTIVES: The purpose of the experiment was to study the effect of pomegranate peel extract (PPE) to a soybean oil diet on broiler performance and other related parameters. METHODS: This research was conducted as completely randomized design arranged in a 2×2×2 factorial experiment using pomegranate peel extract (PPE), antioxidant Nutriad® (AN) and soybean oil (SO). Three hundred and twenty 11 day-old Ross 308 broiler chicks were assigned to eight treatments of four replicates each (ten chicks per replicate). Data were analyzed using the GLM procedure of the SAS software, and the LSM of groups compared at 5% significance level. RESULTS: Soybean oil increased growing and overall feed conversion ratio (FCR) and harmful gastric micro flora. The overall ADG and feed intake were increased by PPE. Inclusion of PPE in the diet had no effect on FCR. Inclusion of PPE in the diet increased nutrient digestibility, beneficial gastric micro flora, lactobacillus, and the antibody titer in 39-day broilers, whereas AN had no effect on any of the performance parameters and decreased the beneficial gastric micro flora. CONCLUSIONS: The overall results showed that PPE in fat and non-fat containing diets might have the potential to increase the daily gain by enhancing feed intake, nutrient digestibility, beneficial gastric micro flora and immune system of broilers with  no deleterious effect on overall FCR.

Objective-To determine whether soybean oil emulsion has an in vitro effect on platelet aggregation and thromboelastography in blood samples obtained from healthy dogs. Animals-12 healthy adult dogs. Procedures-Blood samples were collected from each dog into tubes containing EDTA, hirudin, or sodium citrate for a CBC, collagen- and ADP-induced impedance aggregometry, or thromboelastography, respectively. Whole blood platelet aggregation, determined with ADP or collagen agonists, was measured in blood samples containing hirudin and final lipid concentrations of 0, 1, 10, and 30 mg/mL. The thromboelastographic variables R (reaction time), K (clotting time), α angle, and maximum amplitude were evaluated in blood samples containing sodium citrate and final lipid concentrations equivalent to those used for assessment of platelet aggregation. Results-Median maximum ADP- and collagen-induced platelet aggregation in blood samples containing 1, 10, or 30 mg of lipid/mL did not differ significantly from the value for the respective lipid-free blood sample. Maximum amplitude determined via thromboelastography was significantly reduced in blood samples containing 10 and 30 mg of lipid/mL, compared with findings for lipid-free blood samples. Values of other thromboelastographic variables did not differ, regardless of lipid concentrations. Conclusions and Clinical Relevance-Maximum amplitude determined via thromboelastography in canine blood samples was significantly affected by the addition of lipid to final concentrations that are several orders of magnitude higher than clinically relevant lipid concentrations in dogs. Lipid treatment appears to have no significant effect on hemostatic variables in dogs, although clinical studies should be performed to confirm these in vitro findings.

Growing dogs were fed diets containing soy oil or poultry fat as the main fat source and soybean meal or meat meal as the main protein source to examine the effects of types of dietary fat and protein on fatty acid concentrations in serum and skin and on serum cholesterol concentrations. Dogs fed diets containing soy oil had higher serum linoleic acid concentrations and lower serum oleic acid, arachidonic acid, and cholesterol concentrations than dogs fed diets containing poultry fat. The type of dietary protein had marginal effects on fatty acid concentrations and did not affect serum cholesterol. Similar differences were found in cutaneous fatty acid concentrations, with soy oil-fed dogs having significantly (P < 0.05) higher linoleic acid and lower oleic acid concentrations in their skin than had poultry fat-fed dogs. This study suggested that dietary fat source influences serum and cutaneous fatty acid concentrations and serum cholesterol concentrations in dogs, irrespective of dietary protein source.