Influences of Probiotics and Chitosan Supplementation On the Meat Quality of Broilers

Abstract

Bacterial antagonism with the use of probiotics and other natural sources offer alternatives to prophylactic antimicrobials. Studies on the carcass quality using probiotics from natural and locally available resources as substitutes to expensive commercial antibiotic are limited. The study evaluated the carcass and meat characteristics as affected by the supplementation of antibiotics, probiotics, chitosan and probiotic-chitosan combinations. Six treatment diets with three replications were established following completely randomized design. Standard protocols of raising, slaughtering, and proximate analysis were employed. Results unveiled no significant difference on carcass dressing percentage and cut-up yield, and meat’s dry matter/moisture content. The supplements significantly influenced the flesh color acceptability, pH, crude protein, and crude fat content with TMix (mixture of probiotics), TChi (chitosan) and TMi (probiotic from milk) excelling over the commercially available antibiotics (TCA). This indicates that household-prepared mixture of probiotics from various sources, probiotic from milk, and chitosan supplementation improved the meat quality of broilers and can be used in lieu of commercial synthetic antibiotics.