Agriculture & Food, Volume 11, 2023

Abstract: Broiler chicken production is widely applicable due to its rapid development, ease of feeding, low conversion ratio, and nutrients required by the human body. Natural products have emerged as a more naturalistic method of preventing coccidiosis, as have herb-based additives used to improve production performance and meat quality. Thus, the aim of this study was to analyse the impact of feed supplemented with an herbal-origin additive on broiler chickens’ meat quality characteristics. The feeding trial was carried out with 1-d-old 600 Ross 308-line combination broiler chickens, which were divided into 2 groups with 4 replicate pens: the control group was fed a standard compound feed (with usual coccidiostats), and the experimental group was fed a standard compound diet (without usual coccidiostats) + 500 g/t herbal-origin additive. At the end of the trial, 10 broilers (35-d-old) were randomly selected from each group and euthanized; breast and thigh muscles were collected post- mortem. The morphological composition of carcasses and the physico-chemical composition of muscles were determined. Results showed that the herbal-origin additive in feed significantly lowered total breast fillet weight and leg muscle yield, but increased breast muscle thickness and carcass weight compared to the control group (P<0.05). Compared to the control group, the experimental group lowered pH in thigh muscles by 0.22, decreased fat content in the breast muscles, and on the contrary, increased it in the thigh; significantly lowered breast muscle redness and drip loss, but increased water binding capacity (P<0.05). An uneven trend was discovered in the cooking loss results: the experimental group decreased the indicator in the breast muscles, while the one in the thighs significantly increased (P<0.05). Although the tendentious herbal additive mechanisms were not revealed during our study, this kind of inclusion in poultry feed can positively impact some breast and thigh muscle quality features.