Abstract
ABSTRACTA growing awareness of human health, nutrition, and animal welfare concerns has led to the development of specialty markets for organic food. Poultry produced in alternative systems, such as free-range or organic, are part of this trend. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the differences in growth performance, carcass traits, and meat quality of medium-growing chickens raised in three different raising systems: indoor-floor, cage, and free-range. One hundred and twenty female Lingnanhuang medium-growing birds were reared in each system. All birds were offered the same diets and were grown for 90 days. The body weight gain and feed conversion ratios (feed/gain) of birds from the cage and indoor-floor systems were superior to those kept in the free-range system. The raising system significantly affected eviscerated carcass, abdominal fat, breast muscle, and leg muscle yields as well as shear force value of muscle (P < .05). There was no difference in pH, water-holding capacity, intramuscular fat, and inosine monophosphate content among the systems (P > .05). In conclusion, in medium-growing chickens, the free-range raising system had significant negative effects on growth performance and abdominal fat content.
Highlights
Human health, nutrition, and animal welfare are increasingly attracting consumer attention and organic food markets are becoming more popular
This perception has been confirmed by Fanatico et al.; in 2006 they found that an outdoor raising system improved the flavour of chicken meat
Mikulski et al reported in 2011 that body weight (BW) and meat yield and quality of chickens was primarily due to genotype, and outdoor access did not negatively affect their growth performance or meat yield
Summary
Nutrition, and animal welfare are increasingly attracting consumer attention and organic food markets are becoming more popular. Many consumers prefer to buy products from chickens raised outdoors (free range) because they believe that these products have superior sensory qualities or, in other words, taste better (Yang et al 2015). This perception has been confirmed by Fanatico et al.; in 2006 they found that an outdoor (free range) raising system improved the flavour of chicken meat. Mikulski et al reported in 2011 that body weight (BW) and meat yield and quality of chickens was primarily due to genotype, and outdoor access did not negatively affect their growth performance or meat yield. We reared broilers of the same genotype in three different raising systems in order to evaluate the effects of raising system on their growth performance, carcass traits, and meat quality
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
