Effect of Quercus cortex extract on carcass and meat quality traits of broilers

Abstract

Abstract In terms of consumers, broiler meat should have good nutritional characteristics. The scientific community has actively discussed the use of non-traditional ingredients for feeding poultry. Therefore, research in this direction may lead to an improvement of the quality of broiler meat. This study was designed to investigate the effect of Bifidobacterium, Lactobacillus and Quercus cortex extract (QCE) on the carcass traits and meat quality of broiler chicken. For this, 120 broilers were allocated to the groups: control group – base diet (BD); I – BD +QCE; II – BD + probiotic; III – BD + probiotic + QCE. The following methods were used: capillary electrophoresis and biochemical methods. There was 7.0 % increase in the pre-slaughter live weight of the broilers in group II by the end of the period, compared to the other groups, 8.4 % increase in the proportion of muscle tissue in the carcass, and an increase in the crude protein and dry matter (0.93 %) in the pectoral muscle, in comparison to the control group. There was an increase in the essential amino acids content in comparison to that of the control: in group III – lysine, leucine; in group II – methionine. The supplementation with QC and probiotic leads to an improvement of the amino acid composition of muscle tissue, depending on its localisation with minor changes to carcass traits.