Meat quality of chickens subjected to cyclic heat stress while supplemented with ZINC-L-SELENOMETHIONINE

A significant additional benefit of incorporating organic forms of selenium into poultry diets is the substantial improvement in the nutritional quality of the meat. This study aimed to investigate gradual inclusions of Zinc-L-Selenomethionine in the diet of broiler chickens from one to 42 days of age, reared under cyclic heat stress conditions, and its effects on carcass traits, breast myopathies, quality, and composition. A total of 1,000 one-day-old male Cobb 500® broiler chicks were randomly assigned to five treatments: 0, 0.15, 0.23, 0.47, and 1.30 mg of Zn-L-SeMet per kg of feed, with each group consisting of ten replicates of 20 birds. The carcass traits were unaffected (p ≥ 0.102). All scores of breast myopathy incidence (from 0 to 3) were affected by the treatments (p < 0.05). For wooden breast, the inclusion of 1.30 mg provided breasts with a lower incidence. Breasts from the 0.15 mg treatment had a lower incidence within the severe and extreme White striping scores. The treatments had no significant effects on the breast meat quality (p ≥ 0.180), lipid peroxidation (p ≥ 0.172), or composition (p ≥ 0.383). Including 1.30 mg of Zn-L-SeMet for broiler chickens results in better scores of 0 for wooden breast. For white striping, supplementation from 0.15 mg of Zn-L-SeMet reduces the incidence of score 3.