WHY ARE YOUNG BROILER-CHICKENS FATTER THAN LAYER-STRAIN CHICKS

1. The abdominal fat pads of 5 week-old broiler and layer chicks incorporated 6.0 and 3.9% of intravenously-injected C-14-labelled very low density lipoproteins respectively. 2. These proportions of total plasma lipoprotein flux were sufficient to account for about 65-70% of the rate of fat deposition in broilers, but were more than 4-fold greater than that the rate of fat deposition in layers. 3. [C-14]Palmitate taken up into adipose tissue of layer chicks had a t1/2 of 2-3 days. 4. There was no significant turnover of adipose tissue triglycerides in broilers and this appears to be a major reason for their relative fatness.