Dietary pequi oil (Caryocar brasiliense Camb.) improves feed efficiency and oxidative stability in broiler chickens

1. The effects of increasing dietary levels of pequi oil (PO) on growth performance, oxidative status, and meat quality of broilers over a 42-d production period were evaluated. A total of 1,440 one-day-old male Cobb 500 broilers were randomly allocated to one of six dietary treatments with eight replicates and 30 birds per pen. These included a positive control diet supplemented with Avilamycin (0.05 g/kg; AGP), a negative control diet (without treatment; CON) or CON supplemented with 1.5, 3.0, 4.5 or 6.0 g/kg PO. 2. During the starter phase (d 1–21), increasing PO levels reduced body weight (BW) and average daily gain (ADG; p < 0.05) linearly. Feed conversion ratio (FCR) responded quadratically to PO level (p = 0.001). The highest PO inclusion (6.0 g/kg) decreased average daily feed intake (FI) compared with the birds fed AGP (p = 0.037). Over the whole trial period (d 1–42), increasing PO linearly improved FCR (p = 0.036) and European performance index values (p = 0.046). Both ADG and FI were not affected (p > 0.05). 3. There was no effect of diet on blood biochemical parameters, leukocyte profiles, or relative organ weights, although PO supplementation reduced plasma lipid oxidation (p < 0.001). Meat quality data showed that PO supplementation caused reductions in redness (a*), cooking loss and shear force (p < 0.05). Malondialdehyde content in breast meat decreased in line with PO inclusion in tests covering over 90 days of storage (p = 0.049). 4. Supplementing diets with PO improved FCR and oxidative stability without adverse effects on bird health or carcass traits. The data support the use of PO as a natural feed additive to enhance performance and meat quality in broilers.