Iranian Journal of animal Science

Iranian Journal of animal Science

The effects of feeding high levels of L-arginine at the starter period on meat production and its quality, and blood parameters in broiler chicks

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors
Marziyeh Ebrahimi 1
Ahmad Zare Shahneh 2
Mahmoud Shivazad 2
Zarbakht Ansari Pirsaraei 3
1 Assistant Professor, Faculty of Agricultural Science, University of Tabriz-Tabriz
2 Professor, Faculty of Agricultural Science and Engineering, University of Tehran-Karaj
3 Assistant Professor, Sari Agricultural Sciences & Natural Resources University
10.22059/ijas.2015.55648
Abstract
The objective of the present study was to determine the effects of feeding high levels of L-arginine on growth performance, blood metabolites, and carcass meat quality of female Ross broiler chickens at the starter period. In this experiment, 192 day old chicks were fed with 4 dietary treatments (100%, 153%, 168% and 183% of digestible arginine, based on the Ross catalogue recommendation) with 4 replications in a completely randomized design from day 1 to 10. On 10th day of experiment, chicks were weighed, feed consumption was recorded, and feed efficiency was calculated. Also, three chickens per replication were selected after sampling, blood were euthanized to measure breast and thigh muscle weights, meat quality of the breast muscle (color, pH, and shear force). Data were analyzed based using proc GLM of SAS software. According to the results, the highest increasing percentage for body weight (2.33%), feed efficiency (6.35%), relative weight of breast (22.16%) and thigh (17.53%) muscles were observed in diet with 168% digestible arginine relative to control group (P<0.05). Also, the highest increasing percentage in plasma triiodothyronine (60.45%), thyroxine (26.91%), and  relative triiodothyronine to thyroxine (25.91%) was observed in diet with 183% digestible arginine relative to control group (P<0.01).  On the other hand, in 183% digestible arginine group noticeable decrease in percentages of plasma cholesterol (14.93%) and triglyceride (25.19%) concentrations, shear force (26.39%) and 24 (2.05%) and 48 (2.63%) h meat pH was observed(P<0.05) relative to the control group. The overall results of this study showed that consumption level of 168% digestible arginine, as based of Ross catalogue recommendation, had the best desirable results on growth, meat quality andplasma metabolites.
Keywords
arginine
growth performance
Meat quality
Blood parameters
Broiler Chicken
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Iranian Journal of animal Science
Volume 46, Issue 2 - Serial Number 2
Summer 2015
Pages 169-179

  • Receive Date 25 December 2013
  • Revise Date 23 May 2015
  • Accept Date 01 June 2015