Authors : S. Navid, A. Sheikhlar and K. Kaveh
Abstract: The study was conducted to improve meat quality of spent layer hens through supplementing the old layer hens feed with vitamin D3 in combination with papaya leaf meal applied 3 weeks prior to slaughter. Eighty spent chickens were served in this study after a period of laying for 80 weeks. Diets were a corn-soybean, meal based diet for finisher layer with and without vitamin D3 which was supplemented with different levels of 0, 0.5, 1 and 2% for papaya leaf meal. Experiment lasted for 21 days. At day 0, 7, 14 and 21, the birds were scarified; breast muscle was obtained for meat and skin color, shear force, drip loss, cooking loss, crude protein, fat and calcium. Most of parameters showed significant improvement when diet supplemented with papaya leaf meal and vitamin D3. It can be concluded that for some characteristics related to meat quality, combination of papaya leaf meal and vitamin D3 has synergistic effect.
S. Navid, A. Sheikhlar and K. Kaveh, 2011. Influence of the Combination of Vitamin D3 and Papaya Leaf on Meat Quality of Spent Layer Hen. Agricultural Journal, 6: 197-200.