Effect of dietary incorporation of Spirulina platensis on the growth performance, carcass characteristics and meat quality in broilers.

This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of Spirulina platensis on growth performance, physiochemical properties of meat, carcass characteristics and breast meat quality in broilers. A total of 144-day old commercial broiler chicks were randomly divided into 3 dietary treatments with 4 replicates having 12 birds per replicate and reared for a period of 6 weeks. The dietary treatments were 0 (T1), 1(T2) and 2(T3) % spirulina inclusion in rations. Significantly (P<0.01) higher body weight gain, feed intake and better feed conversion ratio was observed in T1 and T2 compared T3. However, no differences (P>0.05) were observed in production parameters between T1 and T2. The meat quality parameters viz., crude protein, redness (a*) and yellowness (b*) were significantly (P<0.05) higher in T2 compared to T1. However, no significant difference was observed in yellowness of meat between T2 and T3 and T1 and T3. Microbial analysis indicates that total plate count (TPC), psychrophiles, yeast and moulds in meat was decreased (P<0.05) linearly as the level of spirulina increased from 0 % (T1) to 2% (T3). Sensory attributes like tenderness, juiciness and overall acceptability were significantly (P<0.05) higher in T2 and T3 compared to T1. Carcass traits revealed that significantly (P<0.05) higher skin weight was observed in T1 compared to other treatments. However, no significant difference was observed in other parameters like carcass weight, breast weight and carcass percentage among the treatments. The results indicates that supplementation of spirulina in broiler diets up to 1% level improved the growth performance, increased meat colour, quality and overall acceptability. Hence, it can be concluded that spirulina powder can be fed up to 1 per cent level in broiler diets to improve the production and meat quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]