PSVI-1 Improvement of gut morphology and meat quality of broiler chickens by encapsulated citral and cinnamaldehyde

Abstract

Abstract This study investigated the effects of encapsulated citral (CIT) and cinnamaldehyde (CIN) on growth performance, intestinal morphology and meat quality in broilers. A total of 320 0-day-age male broilers (Cobb 500) were allocated 32 pens with 8 pens per treatment. The treatments included: 1) Corn-wheat-SBM basal diet (negative control); 2) basal diet with 30 ppm avilamycin premix (positive control); 3) basal diet with 50 ppm encapsulated CIT and CIN (CCL); 4) basal diet with 100 ppm encapsulated CIT and CIN (CCH). There were no significant differences between treatments in growth performance (P > 0.05) at each feeding stage. Additionally, birds had similar relative organ weights of heart, liver, spleen and bursa (P > 0.05). The higher ratios of villus height to crypt depth (VCR; P ≤ 0.05) were detected in broilers fed either CCL or CCH, with an average being 14.67 and 15.13 in the duodenum, and 15.13 and 13.58 in the jejunum, respectively. Regarding meat quality, a higher pH value (pH = 6.21) in the breast was observed in 24-h post mortem chickens fed CCL (P ≤ 0.05). No significant differences of pH were detected in the breast in 96-h post mortem birds. The breast color (redness, yellowness, and lightness) in either 24-h or 96-h post mortem chickens was not significantly different among treatments (P > 0.05). No change in purge loss (%) was observed in the breast after 48 h. The severity of white striping (WS) or woody meat (WB) was higher in the positive control (WS = 0.58; WB = 0.15) than in other treatments (P ≤ 0.05). In conclusion, dietary treatment with encapsulated CIT and CIN improved gut morphology and meat quality of broilers by increasing VCR in the small intestine and reducing the severity of WS/WB in the breast, respectively, without affecting growth performance.