Inclusion of coconut oil in diets for turkey breeders and its effects on embryonic yolk and liver fatty acids

Turkey hens were fed either a standard breeder diet (CON, myristic acid, C-14.0, 1.1%; palmitic acid, C-16:0, 16.8%; oleic acid, C-18:1, 23%; Linoleic acid, C-18:2, 48.7%) or a diet containing 5% coconut oil (COCO) enriched with medium chain fatty acids (MCFA; lauric acid, C-12:0, 22.6%; C-14:0, 10.8%; C-16:0, 12.5%; C-18:1, 14.8%; C-18:2, 24.6%). After 10 d on the diets, fresh eggs were collected for yolk Lipid and fatty acid (FA) determination. An additional 60 to 95 eggs were incubated and the FA profiles of the neutral lipid (NL) and phospholipid (PL) fractions of yolk sac and liver lipids were determined. The NL fraction of the yolk sac from CON eggs contained less C-12:0 (0 vs 0.49%) and C-14:0 (0.7 vs 4.6%) and more C-18:1 (41.3 vs 37.5%). The PL fraction of the yolk sac from both treatments contained < 1% C-14:0, and there was less than a 2% difference between treatments in other FA concentrations. The hepatic NL fraction from both treatments contained < 1% C-14:0 and only C-18.1 showed > 1% differences between treatments (Control = 59.9%; COCO = 56.62%). There were no dietary effects on the FA profile of hepatic PL. The presence of only minimal quantities of MCFA in hepatic NL and PL suggests that absorbed yolk sac MCFA are extensively metabolized during embryonic development.