Evaluation of 24 days feeding L-arginin on performance, meat quality and blood metabolites in broilers

For the reason of lower carcass quality because of genetic improvement, finding a natural way to improve growth and meat quality is necessary. The present study was designed to investigate the effects of dietary supplementation of L-arginine on growth performance, carcass quality, and blood metabolites of female Ross 308 broiler chickens for 24 days. In this experiment, 192- day -old female chicks were fed with 4 dietary treatments, 4 replications, and 12 observations in a completely randomized design. Dietary treatments were 100%, 153%, 168% and 183% of digestible arginine, based on the Ross broiler recommendation. Diets were fed from 1 to 24d. On 10th and 24th days of experiment, birds weighed and feed consumption were recorded. At the end of experiment, three chickens per replication were selected; blood samples were collected and were euthanized to determine meat quantity and quality, and blood metabolites. Results showed that diet containing 168% arginine had the highest body weight, feed efficiency, and weight of breast and thigh muscles, while diet containing 183% arginine showed the highest meat redness index and plasma thyroid hormone concentrations (P<0.05). On the other hand, increasing in arginine of the diet reduced plasma concentrations of triglyceride, and urea, shear force and pH of the meat. In conclusion, the overall results of this study showed that consumption level of 168% digestible arginine, as based of Ross broiler recommendation, had the best desirable results on growth, meat quality and plasma metabolites.