The Consequence of Using Iranian Oak Acorn in Broilers Diet: Evaluation of Some Meat Characteristics

In recent years, application of natural and safe feed additives such as herbs and herbal products has been increased, due to their beneficial concequences on health and thereby animal production. One of the natural important compounds present in plants, is phenolic compounds which has been recived high interest and many investigations have been conducted about their different effects on broilers. This study was conducted to investigate the effect of dietary inclusion of Iranian oak acorn (Quercus brantii L.) (OA), as a phenolic cmpounds-rich feedstuff, on some breast meat traits of broilers at different refrigerated (4 °C) storage times.

A total of 160 one-day-old mix of male and female broiler chicks were distributed between 2 experimental treatments (with 4 replicates of 20 birds) in a completely randomized design and fed a control diet (without OA) or a diet containing 20% ​​OA. During the rearing period, birds were fed with starter (d 1-10), grower (d 11-24) and finisher (d 25-42) diets, respectively. At the end of the rearing period, two birds were slaughtered from each replicate and samples were taken from breast muscle and kept in refrigerator. Different parameters (population of  Lactobacillus, Psychrotriph bacteria, Enterobacteriaceae, total aerobic bacteria, lipid oxidation, water holding capacity, cooking loss) were measured at 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 and 12 d of storage.

The results showed that using OA decreased population of Lactobacillus at 6 and population of total aerobic bacteria at 6 and 8 d of storage (p <0.05). At 2 d of storage, the rate of lipid oxidation in breast meat of OA-recieved group was higher than the control group (p <0.05) but in other days no significant difference was observed between two treatments. Feeding birds with OA had no significant effect on water holding capacity of breast meat at different storage days. In birds fed with OA, breast meat cooking loss was lower than the control group at 4 d of storage, but it was higher than the control group at 10 d of storage (p<0.05).

In conclusion, under the conditions of this study, feeding broilers with OA had no significant and constant effect on the most of investigated parameters.