Performance Characteristics and Carcass Quality of Broilers Chicks under High Stocking Density and Vitamin E Supplemented Diets

Abstract

Two hundred and seventy day-old broiler chicks were randomly divided into five treatments in three
-2 2 -1
replicates of 10 birds.m (0.1 m .bird ) in Treatment 1 (positive control) and Treatment 2 (negative
control), 3, 4 and 5 with 20 birds.m-2 (0.05 m2.bird-1). Treatments 1 and 2 had no dietary Vitamin E
supplementation while Treatments 3, 4 and 5 had Vitamin E supplementation at 50, 100 and 150
mg.kg-1 respectively. At the end of the experiment, carcass characteristics: cold shortening (CS),
thermal shortening (TS), cooking loss (CL), shear force (SF) and water holding capacity (WHC) of
the birds were determined. There were no significant changes in the weight gain and final weight of
the birds fed the different diets but the feed conversion ratio (FCR) was highest in the birds fed dietary
Treatment 2 (3.29) compared to those on Vitamin E supplemented diets. The WHC was not
significantly different in the raw (58.43-59.43%) and cooked meat (59.02-59.51%) for all the
treatments. The birds in Treatment 2 had the highest CS (3.50%) compared to those on Vitamin E
supplemented diets (2.45-2.55%). The SF of the birds was not significantly different in all treatments
with mean values at 3.35-3.60%. The implication from the results is that broiler chicks can be stocked
-2 -1 up to 20 birds.m without adverse effects provided the diet is supplemented with 100 mg.kg Vitamin
E.