Abstract
An experiment was conducted of the poultry facilities of La Salle Agricultural College in Xanxere, SC, Brazil, to evaluate the effect of the administration of sodium bicarbonate, glucose and vitamin E to the drinking water during pre-slaughter feed withdrawal on carcass yield, organ relative weights (heart, liver, proventriculus, and gizzard), gizzard emptying, and meat quality of broiler chickens. The applied treatments were: water as control; 50g/L of glucose; 50g/L de glucose + 200mg/L of vitamin E; 75g/L of glucose; 75g/L + 200mg/L of vitamin E; 0.45% of sodium bicarbonate; 0.45% of sodium bicarbonate + 200mg/L of vitamin E; 0.55% of sodium bicarbonate; 0.55% of sodium bicarbonate + 200mg/L of vitamin E; 200mg/L de vitamin E. On the last day before slaughter, during the water diet period,500 birds were distributed in a completely randomized experimental design with ten treatments and ten replicates of five birds each. No difference in broiler carcass yield and organ relative weights was found. There were no significant changes in gizzard contents, in ultimate meat, cooking loss, shear force value, or in the meat color parameters L* (lightness), a* (redness) and b* (yellowness). It was concluded is that the addition of glucose, sodium bicarbonate, and vitamin E to the drinking water during pre-slaughter feed withdrawal period has no influence on carcass yield or on relative organ weight, neither on the emptying of the gizzard contents and the meat quality of broiler chickens.
Highlights
Pre-slaughter feed withdrawal is a common practice used in the poultry industry to reduce contamination in the processing plant and to improve production efficiency because the feed provided to the broilers a few hours before slaughtering is not converted into meat (Mendes, 2001b)
An experiment was conducted of the poultry facilities of La Salle Agricultural College in Xanxerê, SC, Brazil, to evaluate the effect of the administration of sodium bicarbonate, glucose and vitamin E to the drinking water during pre-slaughter feed withdrawal on carcass yield, organ relative weights, gizzard emptying, and meat quality of broiler chickens
It was concluded is that the addition of glucose, sodium bicarbonate, and vitamin E to the drinking water during pre-slaughter feed withdrawal period has no influence on carcass yield or on relative organ weight, neither on the emptying of the gizzard contents and the meat quality of broiler chickens
Summary
Pre-slaughter feed withdrawal is a common practice used in the poultry industry to reduce contamination in the processing plant and to improve production efficiency because the feed provided to the broilers a few hours before slaughtering is not converted into meat (Mendes, 2001b). The purpose of withdrawing feed before shipping the broilers to the processing plant reduces the occurrence of carcass contamination (Rui et al, 2011). The duration of the feed withdrawal period has been widely discussed, varying from 8 to 12 hours, but it can be longer depending on the logistics of the company, distance to the processing plant, and holding time at lair age (Northcutt et al, 1997; Rui et al, 2011). Blood glucose of broiler chickens during feed withdrawal decreases rapidly, causing high consumption of the glycogen present in the liver. Warriss et al (1988) stated that the liver glycogen is almost completely metabolized up to six hours of feed withdrawal.
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