Dietary Green Seaweed Compromises Overall Feed Conversion Efficiency but not Blood Parameters and Meat Quality and Stability in Broiler Chickens

Tumisang Ben Matshogo, Caven Mguvane Mnisi and Victor Mlambo
Additional contact information
Tumisang Ben Matshogo: Department of Animal Science, School of Agricultural Science, North-West University, Mafikeng 2745, South Africa
Caven Mguvane Mnisi: Department of Animal Science, School of Agricultural Science, North-West University, Mafikeng 2745, South Africa
Victor Mlambo: School of Agricultural Sciences, Faculty of Agriculture and Natural Sciences, University of Mpumalanga, Nelspruit 1200, South Africa

Agriculture, 2020, vol. 10, issue 11, 1-11

Abstract: Using seaweeds as sources of nutrients and beneficial bioactive compounds can promote sustainable production of functional poultry products. This study investigated the physiological and meat quality responses of Cobb 500 broiler chickens to graded levels of green seaweed ( Ulva sp.) meal (SWM). Three hundred, two-week-old male chicks (159.3 ± 11.76 g live-weight) were randomly assigned to five diets formulated by diluting a standard broiler diet with SWM at 0 (SW0), 20 (SW20), 25 (SW25), 30 (SW30) and 35 g/kg (SW35). There were neither linear nor quadratic trends ( p > 0.05) for overall feed intake, overall growth performance and carcass and meat quality traits. Overall feed conversion efficiency (R 2 = 0.192, p = 0.018) and spleen weights (R 2 = 0.182; p = 0.020) linearly declined as SWM levels increased. Linear and quadratic responses ( p > 0.05) were observed for lymphocytes. There were linear effects for meat pH except on day 7 of storage. Meat lightness ( L *) linearly increased whereas meat redness ( a *) quadratically responded to SWM levels (day 3 of storage). While an optimum inclusion level could not be established for seaweed based on growth performance, improvements in some meat shelf life indicators were observed in the broilers reared on seaweed-containing diets.

Keywords: chicken; growth performance; hematology; meat quality; seaweed; serum biochemistry (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14 Q15 Q16 Q17 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/10/11/547/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/10/11/547/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jagris:v:10:y:2020:i:11:p:547-:d:444770

Access Statistics for this article

Agriculture is currently edited by Ms. Leda Xuan

More articles in Agriculture from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().