Effect of age and different doses of dietary vitamin E on breast meat qualitative characteristics of finishing broilers

Abstract

The supplementation of vitamin E on broiler chicken diets is essential to the prevention of lipid oxidation reactions in the meat and improvement of meat quality. The objective of this study was to assess the effect of different doses of dietary vitamin E on breast meat quality of broiler chickens in the finishing period. Five doses of vitamin E were used (30, 90, 150, 210, and 270 mg/kg feed) in broilers' diets from 42 to 54 d of age. A completely randomized design was conducted, followed by a split-plot, where the vitamin E dose was considered as the whole plot, and broilers’ age at slaughter was the subplot. Breast meat quality was assessed at 4 different ages (45, 48, 51, and 54 d old), using 50 birds per age, totaling 200 birds. Meat quality characteristics evaluated were: pH at 24 h post mortem, color (brightness, redness, and yellowness), water holding capacity, cooking loss, shear force, and lipid peroxidation. There was no interaction between age and dose of vitamin E for meat quality characteristics ( P > 0.05). The age at slaughter had a quadratic effect ( P < 0.05) on pH, brightness, redness, and water holding capacity. Although pH values were higher in the breast meat of older birds (51 and 52 d old), breast meat of younger birds (48 d) had a more reddish aspect. Shear force value was higher in breast meat of birds slaughtered at later ages ( P < 0.01), as a linear age-effect was observed. Brightness increased linearly ( P < 0.05) with higher vitamin doses, whereas treatments did not alter yellowness, cooking loss, and lipid peroxidation. In this study, increasing vitamin E doses in the finishing period increased the brightness of broiler breast meat, whereas slaughtering at later ages resulted in greater meat pH and shear force value.

Effects of dietary vitamin E supplementation levels on growth performance, breast muscle meat quality characteristics, and fatty acid composition of geese

“…In the present study, different amounts of VE had no significant effect on the pH and shear force of the pectoral muscle, similar to the results of Vieira et al. (2021) in broiler chickens. This similarity may be because the samples collected in this experiment were prerigor meat.…”

“…We found no significant change in pectoral muscle color between treatment groups, probably because the determination of meat color in this experiment was completed within 1 h after slaughter; α-tocopherol mainly acts to delay the oxidation of meat after death (Kang et al, 2016). In the present study, different amounts of VE had no significant effect on the pH and shear force of the pectoral muscle, similar to the results of Vieira et al (2021) in broiler chickens. This similarity may be because the samples collected in this experiment were prerigor meat.…”

“…Nevertheless, Khatun et al (2020) reported that adding 100 mg/kg VE to the diet improved the growth performance of broilers, reduced drip loss, and increased meat redness and tenderness. Vieira et al (2021) reported that supplementation with 30-270 mg/kg VE had no significant effect on breast muscle, shear force, drip loss, or lipid peroxidation.…”

“…Vieira et al. (2021) reported that supplementation with 30–270 mg/kg VE had no significant effect on breast muscle, shear force, drip loss, or lipid peroxidation.…”

Vitamin E Supplementation Enhances Lipid Oxidative Stability via Increasing Vitamin E Retention, Rather Than Gene Expression of MAPK-Nrf2 Signaling Pathway in Muscles of Broilers

“…Similar to our study, a VE supplement of 200 mg/kg feed for 2 to 3 weeks [8] and six weeks [9,10] reduced lipid oxidation in both breast and thigh meat. However, a supplement of VE for a short period (12 days) did not affect meat lipid oxidation [29]. Lipid oxidation was decreased by dietary E in chickens exposed to heat stress [6] or ochratoxin A-induced stress [27].…”