Camelina ( Camelina sativa (L.) Crantz) as Feedstuffs in Meat Type Poultry Diet: A Source of Protein and n-3 Fatty Acids

Camelina seed or seed processing derivatives, i.e., cake, are cheap alternative protein feed ingredients for meat type poultry. Camelina is an oilseed crop containing 36.8% oil in seeds, while in the cake the oil content accounts for 6.4-22.7%. If compared with other family plants, camelina is distinguished by a unique fatty acid composition, because the content of α-linolenic fatty acid (C18:3n-3; ALA) varies from 25.9 to 36.7% of total fatty acids. The total tocopherol content in camelina oil and cake are, respectively, 751-900 and 687 mg/kg. Addition of camelina to poultry nutrition increases the amount of n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) in poultry meat and liver. The content of ALA in chicken muscles increases by 1.3-4.4, 2.4-2.9 and 2.3-7.2 times after supplementing chicken diets with, respectively, camelina cake (8-24%), seed (10%), and oil (2.5-6.9%) in comparison with the control group. Camelina cake (5-25%), seed (10%) and oil (2.5-4%) inclusion in chicken diets results in 1.5-3.9 times higher total n-3 PUFA content in muscles and liver. Meanwhile, supplementation of chicken diets with camelina oil (4-6.9%), seed (5-10%) and cake (5-25%) results in, respectively, a 1.8-8.4, 1.6-1.9 and 1.3-2.9 times lower n-6/n-3 PUFA ratio in muscles, and 3.29 times lower n-6/n-3 PUFA ratio in the liver. After inclusion of different amounts of camelina cake in chicken diets, a healthy for human nutrition n-6/n-3 PUFA ratio from 1.6 to 2.9 was found in chicken muscles.