Effect of whole egg powder on growth performance, blood cell counts, nutrient digestibility, relative organ weights, and meat quality in broiler chickens

Effect of different feed supplements on selected quality indicators of chicken meat

The aim of the study was to evaluate the effect of different feed additives (bee pollen extract, propolis extract, and probiotic) on meat quality of broiler chickens. A total of 180 one day-old broiler chicks of mixed sex (Ross 308) were randomly divided into 3 groups. Dietary treatments were as follows: basal diet, free of supplements (control group; C);  basal diet  plus 400 mg bee pollen extract per 1 kg of feed mixtures and 3.3 g probiotic preparation added to drinking water (group E1); basal diet  plus 400 mg propolis extract per 1 kg of feed mixtures and 3.3 g probiotic preparation added to drinking water (group E2). In the experiment, the probiotic preparation based on Lactobacillus fermentum (1.109 CFU.g-1 of bearing medium) was used. Fattening period lasted for 42 days. Feed mixtures were produced without any antibiotic preparations and coccidiostatics. Meat quality was evaluated by following technological properties: cooling, freezing and roasting loss; colour parameters based on CIELab system; and shear force. Both dietary supplementations led to decrease in cooling (p ≤0.05) and freezing (p ≥0.05) losses compared with control. On the contrary, the supplemented diet tended to increase roasting losses (p ≤0.05) and shear force values in thigh muscle (p ≤0.05). Significantly higher L* values (p ≤0.05) in breast and thigh muscles, as well as the b* values in thigh muscle, were found when broiler chickens were fed the supplements, especially bee pollen extract and probiotics. In addition, the supplements improve redness (a*) of meat. The redness of breast muscle appeared to be the most affected (p ≥0.05) by propolis extract plus probiotics supplementation, while thigh muscle had the highest value (p ≤0.05) in bee pollen extract plus probiotics supplemented group. These findings suggested that the supplements have a beneficial effect on quality of chicken meat due to positive changes in most of quality indicators investigated in the study.