Authors : S. Navid, M. Hilmi, A.Q. Sazili and A. Sheikhlar
Abstract: A study was undertaken to improve meat quality of spent layer chicken through supplementing the old layer birds diet with vitamin D3, papaya leaf meal and pineapple skin meal a few days prior to slaughter. Forty spent layers were obtained to conduct this study after a period of laying for 80 weeks. About 4 diets which were fed to the chicken included diet 1: control diet (based on NRC recommendation level to meet or exceed the bird requirements at finisher stage), diet 2: control + (1x105) I.U. Vitamin D3, diet 3: control + 1% Pineapple Skin Meal (PSM) and diet 4: control + 1% Papaya Leaf Meal (PLM). Chicken were kept in an individual cage and fed for 7 days. At day 7, the chicks were scarified, breast muscle was taken for meat color, shear force, pH of the muscle, CP, fat, Ca, drip loss and cooking loss analysis. The results indicated that both vitamin D3 and papaya leaf meal were potent additives to improve tenderness, drip loss, cooking loss and meat color. However, Vitamin D3 appeared to be the most effective one in improving meat quality of spent layers.
S. Navid, M. Hilmi, A.Q. Sazili and A. Sheikhlar, 2010. Effects of Papaya Leaf Meal, Pineapple Skin Meal and Vitamin D3 Supplementation on Meat Quality of Spent Layer Chicken. Journal of Animal and Veterinary Advances, 9: 2873-2876.