Abstract: This study was designed to determine the effect of dietary supplementation with glycerol monolaurate (GML) on the growth perfo4rmance, digestive ability and chicken nutritional compounds of broilers. For this purpose, 1-day-old broilers were fed on a basal diet with or without 150 mg/kg GML for 49 d and the growth performance, intestinal structure, nutrient apparent metabolic rate of broilers and chicken nutritional compounds were measured during this period. The results showed that compared with the control, the GML group could significantly improve feed conversion rate from day 22 to day 49, increased the length of duodenum, jejunum and ileum, villus length in the jejunum and villus height to crypt depth ratio in the duodenum and ileum, and elevate the apparent metabolic rate of crude protein, cuprum and calcium. In addition, dietary GML supplementation significantly increased the relative levels of C18:2 and C20:4, essential fatty acids and polyunsaturated fatty acids in chicken, as well as the contents of crude protein, lysine, aspartate, glutamate, tyrosine, flavor amino acids and total amino acids. In conclusion, dietary GML supplementation could improve the growth performance, digestive ability and meat nutritional compounds of broilers effectively.

Key words: glycerol monolaurate, broilers, growth performance, digestive ability, nutritional quality