Quality and stability of meat obtained from broiler chickens fed diets containing tonic root (Mondia whitei) as supplement

Abstract

Tonic root has been speculated to improve Libido and this could have effect on performance and carcass traits of the animal. Afifty-six days experiment was conducted to determine meat quality of Abor acre Strain of broiler chickens fed graded dietary inclusion of supplemental white ginger (Mondia whitei). One hundred and eighty, one day-old broiler chicks were assigned to five treatment groups with three replicates per group. Birds on treatment one were fed concentrate with no supplements, those on treatment two had concentrate + 0.5g Mondia whitei per kg feed, treatment three had concentrate + 1g Mondia whitei per kg feed; Treatment 4 had concentrate with 1.5g Mondia whitei per kg feed and treatment five had concentrate + 2g Mondia whitei per kg feed. At the end of the eight weeks feeding trial, three birds each from each replicate of five treatment groups were randomly selected, deprived of food for 12 hours prior to slaughtering. After the traditional slaughtering method, feather plucking and evisceration were done and breast muscles were excised from the carcasses for quality parameters evaluation. The results showed significance (P< 0.05) in some measured parameters such as colour, yellowness (b*) and Lightness (L*). Highest (P<0.05) triglyceride content of meat (145.33 mg/dL) was recorded in the meat of birds fed inclusion level at 0.5g/kg and the lowest value (91.67mg/dL) in the meat of birds fed inclusion level of 1g/kg. Breast muscles had the highest (P<0.05) pH score 6.72 at 1g/kg inclusion level and least value of 6.51 was in the control group. Dietary inclusion of Mondia whitei showed no significant (P>0.05) effect on cholesterol, high density lipoprotein (HDL) and low-density lipoprotein (LDL). Although superoxide dismutase (SOD) and water absorptive power were not significantly (P>0.05) influenced, cooking and refrigeration loss as well as thiobarbituric acid reactive substance (TBARS) in meat were significantly (P<0.05) lowest in birds fed 1g/kg dietary inclusion level of Mondia whitei. Some phytochemicals and overall sensory acceptability were statistically influenced by the dietary treatments.