Effect of bocaiuva pulp oil supplementation of broiler chicken diets on growth performance and quality and oxidative stability of meat

Abstract

We evaluated inclusion levels of bocaiuva (Acrocomia aculeata (Jacq.) Lodd.) pulp oil (BPO) in the diets of broiler chickens on growth performance, carcass characteristics, and quality and oxidative stability of meat. Broiler chickens (1,176) were randomly allocated to 7 treatments: a positive control (PC) with antibiotic (avilamycin); a negative control (NC) without performance enhancer; and 5 inclusion levels of BPO (100, 200, 300, 400, and 500 ppm) added to the NC diet, with 7 replications and 24 broiler chickens each. From 0 to 7 d, broiler chickens fed the PC diet (P = 0.013) and those that received the BPO-containing diets (P = 0.006), had greater weight gain compared to NC. From 0 to 42 d, broiler chickens that received BPO had worse feed conversion ratio compared to the PC diet (P = 0.033). There was a quadratic effect of the inclusion levels of BPO on wing yield, with a lower percentage predicted at the level of 217 ppm of BPO (P = 0.008). Broiler chickens that received diets containing BPO had lower breast yield when compared to the PC and NC (P = 0.033). The variable lightness (L*) at 15 min postmortem was influenced by BPO inclusion levels, with an increasing linear effect (P = 0.048). The thiobarbituric acid reactive substances content was higher in the meat samples analyzed after 20 d of storage, regardless of the inclusion level of BPO (P = 0.001). Bocaiuva pulp oil inclusion in broiler chicken diets increases body weight gain up to 7d. During the other rearing periods, the inclusion of BPO had little or no effect on growth performance. According to meat quality and lipid oxidation analyses, the antioxidant effect of BPO was not observed. In summary, bocaiuva pulp oil can be used in broiler chicken diets to replace performance enhancers up to d 7.