Long-chain fatty acids are potent activators of preadipocyte differentiation. Oleate, an unsaturated fatty acid, can initiate the differentiation of chicken preadipocytes into mature adipocytes. The present study was designed to investigate whether chicken (Gallus gallus) fibroblasts and myoblasts could be induced to transdifferentiate into adipocyte-like cells by oleate. Chicken fibroblasts, myoblasts and preadipocytes were obtained from 9-day-old embryos, 11-day-old embryos and 12-day-old birds, respectively. The effects of oleate on cell phenotype and gene expression were detected. The results showed that preadipocytes and chicken fibroblasts both had lipid droplets in the cytoplasm after being induced by oleate, but there were no changes in cell phenotype of chicken myoblasts. Moreover, in chicken fibroblasts, the mRNA and protein expression levels of A-FABP were significantly increased after induction with oleate. In addition, the mRNA expression levels of C/EBPalpha, PPARgamma and SREBP-1 were significantly increased at 3 h, 9 h and 12 h after induction, respectively. These results suggest that oleate could induce chicken fioblasts to transdifferentiate into adipocyte-like cells, but has no effect on chicken myoblasts. Our findings may provide a unique new model for studying the molecular control of chicken adipocyte differentiation and adipogenesis.