Impact of stocking density and feeding regimen on broilers: Chicken meat composition, fatty acids, and serum cholesterol levels

Abstract

Primary Audience: Broiler Managers, Live Production Managers, Researchers SUMMARYThe purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of different stocking densities (22.5, 18.75, 15, 11.25, 7.5 broilers/m 2 ) in ad libitum (Al) and limited-or pair-feeding (Pf) regimens on meat composition; fatty acid profile of the total carcass, breast meat, and thigh meat; and serum cholesterol level in broiler chickens. (All the Pf groups were provided the same amount of feed per broiler, as determined for the Al-fed group with 22.5 broilers/m 2 .) Limited feeding increased the fat ratio of the chicken meat. Lowering the stocking density reduced the fat ratio and increased the protein ratio of the meat in both feeding regimens. The total saturated fatty acid (SFA) ratio was found to be quite high, whereas the total polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) and n-3 fatty acid ratios were found to be low in the limit-fed broilers. Lowering the stocking density had a variable effect on fatty acid composition of the meat; total SFA and monounsaturated fatty acid ratios decreased, whereas total PUFA, n-3, and n-6 ratios increased in the Al groups. Total SFA and monounsaturated fatty acid ratios increased and total PUFA, n-3, and n-6 ratios decreased in the Pf groups. Serum total and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels were reduced with lower stocking densities in the Al groups, but only high-density lipoprotein cholesterol was reduced in the Pf groups. Consequently, stocking density and feeding regimen significantly changed the composition, fatty acid profile, and serum cholesterol level of chicken meat.

Cholesterol Content and Methods for Cholesterol Determination in Meat and Poultry

“…Most RP‐HPLC methods for cholesterol determination use acetonitrile as the polar organic solvent with the addition of either ethanol (Daneshfar and others 2009), methanol (Simsek and others 2009), or isopropanol (Komprda and others 2003). The RP‐HPLC methods have typically employed silica (Abidi 2001) as 5‐μm particle support material covalently bonded with either octadecyl (octadecylsilica, C18, C 18 H 37 ‐Nogueira and Bragagnolo 2002; Komprda and others 2003; Salvatori and others 2004, 2008; Pratiwi and others 2006; Simsek and others 2009; 10 μm in Beyer and Jensen 1989) or octyl (octylsilica, C8, C 8 H 17 ‐, Nakajima and others 1995; Daneshfar and others 2009). The RP‐HPLC C18 column was found to be superior to the C8 column because the retention of cholesterol and other sterols is much stronger in the C18 column (Holen 1985; Fenton 1992).…”

“…These detection methods are mainly coupled with HPLC for the determination of other unsaponifiable compounds such as tocopherols, tocotrienols, and plant sterols in addition to cholesterol (Abidi 2001; Shimada and others 2001). Thus far, an HPLC system equipped with either a UV/UV‐Visible (UV‐Vis) detector or a photodiode array (PDA) detector has been the most common alternative to GC for the analysis of cholesterol and other sterols in foods including meat products with acceptable sensitivity (UV‐Vis, bovine tissues, Katsanidis and Addis 1999; UV‐Vis, egg noodles, Nogueira and Bragagnolo 2002; PDA, egg, Bragagnolo and Rodriguez‐Amaya 2003a; UV, chicken, turkey, fish, Komprda and others 2003; PDA, broiler meat, Ponte and others 2004, 2008; UV, goat meat, Pratiwi and others 2006; UV, bovine meat, Costa and others 2006, 2009; UV, broiler serum, Simsek and others 2009; UV, milk, egg yolk, olive oil, Daneshfar and others 2009). The UV wavelengths for cholesterol absorption used in these studies ranged from 202 to 210 nm.…”

“…Such an increase in cholesterol content is probably caused by the presence of bone marrow, which is similar to mechanically deboned beef (Kunsman and others 1981). Dietary treatments, such as feed rations, also have been studied extensively in an effort to improve lipid quality and decrease cholesterol content in poultry meats (Konjufca and others 1997; Ayerza and others 2002; Ponte and others 2004, 2008; Hur and others 2007; Simsek and others 2009).…”

Effects of stocking density on growth performance, meat quality and tibia development of Pekin ducks

“…For the poultry industry, high stocking density can be more economically profitable (Ravindran, Thomas, Thomas, & Morel, ; Thomas et al., ; Verspecht, Vanhonacker, Verbeke, Zoons, & Van Huylenbroeck, ). However, studies with floor‐reared broilers and other poultry species indicated that overcrowding could suppress performance and meat quality (Simsek, Cerci, Dalkilic, Yilmaz, & Ciftci, ; Tong, Lu, Zou, Wang, & Shi, ; Velo & Ceular, ; Wang, Min, Yuan, Zhang, & Guo, ; Yin et al., ), and impair welfare (Buijs, Keeling, Rettenbacher, Van Poucke, & Tuyttens, ; Buijs et al., ; Estevez, ).…”

Infrared thermography applied to the evaluation of metabolic heat loss of chicks fed with different energy densities

“…Although the advantage of oil addition to the diet is significant in periods of high ambient temperature (Baião & Lara, 2005;Simsek et al, 2009) the main objective of this study was to assess the efficiency of an infrared thermographic camera to detect variations in metabolic heat production as a function of dietary energy, independently of weather conditions. The higher dietary energy level of the diet containing soybean oil resulted in lower metabolic heat production, as demonstrated by the difference between treatments in mean surface temperature of individual birds (p <0.02) and of the entire flock (p <0.01, Table 2).…”