This study was conducted to evaluate the effects of replacing soybean meal (SBM) with rapeseed meal (RSM) or fermented rapeseed meal (FRSM) in diets on growth performance, gastrointestinal microflora population, blood metabolites, meat quality, and lipid metabolism in broiler chickens. Three hundred 1-d-old male broiler chickens were allocated to 5 dietary treatments with 4 pens and 15 chickens in each pen (including a corn-SBM control diet as well as 4 experimental diets in which 50 and 100% of SBM protein in the corn-SBM control diet was replaced with RSM or FRSM) in a completely randomized design. Broiler chickens fed diets containing 50 and 100% FRSM had greater weight gain (WG) and a better feed conversion ratio (FCR; P<0.05) than those fed 50 and 100% RSM, and there were no differences in WG and FCR of the chickens fed diets containing 50% FRSM or control diet. The serum concentrations of triglycerides and very low density lipoprotein cholesterol (P<0.05), and coliform bacteria population in ileum (P<0.05) of broiler chickens fed FRSM diets were lower than others. Broiler chickens fed diets containing FRSM had lower cholesterol and malondialdehyde concentration in thigh muscle (P<0.05), but greater total superoxide dismutase activities and total antioxidant capacity in both breast and thigh muscles compared to other treatments (P<0.05). In thigh muscle, FRSM diets reduced total saturated fatty acid contents and increased total polyunsaturated fatty acids contents compared to the others (P<0.05). In conclusion, replacing SBM with FRSM improved growth performance as well as antioxidant capacity and meat quality of broiler chickens and can be used as a suitable alternative protein source for SBM in broiler chicken diets.

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