Effect of dietary energy density and folic acid supplementation on white striping occurrence and growth performance of broiler chickens

Abstract

Broilers were allocated to eight treatments consisting of two energy levels: normal (NE) and high (HE), and four folic acid (FA) levels (2.2, 5, 10, and 15 ppm). On day 42, two male and two female chickens were euthanized per pen, and white striping (WS) evaluation was performed on the pectoralis major. Birds fed HE diets had reduced (P < 0.05) feed intake and feed conversion rate than those on NE diets. With increasing FA levels, there was reduced (P < 0.05) WS score and increased (P < 0.05) normal breast fillet percentage in female chickens but not in the males. WS scores were higher (P < 0.01) in male chickens than in the females.