Comparative impact of conventional and alternative gut health management programs on growth performance and breast meat quality in broiler chickens raised in commercial and research settings

Abstract

Consumer and regulatory pressure continue to drive the poultry industry to reduce the use of antibiotics due to concerns surrounding antimicrobial resistance in human medicine. Consequently, gut health management programs have been developed to facilitate production of chicken with less reliance on antimicrobials. The objective of this study was to evaluate whether conventional and alternative gut health programs paired with antibiotic removal were impacting growth performance and breast meat quality in broiler chickens reared under commercial (study 1) and research (study 2) settings. A total of 1,159,908 broilers were reared on one of 3 gut health management programs: 1) conventional ( CON ), where some medically important antibiotics ( MIA ) are allowed, 2) raised without MIA ( RWMIA ), and 3) raised without antibiotics ( RWA ). Studies showed no statistical differences for body weight, feed intake, feed conversion ratio (FCR), or total mortalities among birds reared on the three programs. In commercial settings, total condemnations were significantly lower in birds reared on the CON program compared to birds reared without MIA. Breast weight (g/100 g BW) was lower in birds on the RWA program under commercial conditions, however the same effect was not observed under research conditions. The RWMIA program had the highest breast weight in both studies and demonstrated the lowest incidence of breast meat myopathies in research settings. These results suggest that growth performance was similar among programs and that the strategies employed in the absence of antibiotics are effective in maintaining overall performance. Differences in breast meat attributes among programs warrants further study.