Research Article
Małgorzata Jakubowska, Józefa Gardzielewska, Tadeusz Karamucki, Artur Rybarczyk, Beata Byczkowska
West Pomeranian University of Technology, Szczecin, Poland
Abstract. The study aimed at determination of the effect of 12-hour fasting on the slaughter value and the level of haematological and mineral indices in the blood of broiler chickens. The study was conducted on 6-week-old Hybro commercial crossbred chickens with an even sex ratio (1:1), divided into 3 groups, 40 individuals each. Group I had access to feed and water for the entire 12-hours experiment, group II was deprived of feed but had access to water, whereas group III was deprived of both food and water for the whole 12 hours. Blood was sampled at the same time as the slaughter, with the following parameters being assayed in the whole blood: haemoglobin level (Hb), haematocrite value (Ht) and K+, Na+, Cl– concentration, whereas Ca, Mg, P contents was checked in the blood serum. The body weight of chickens was determined before and after fasting, whereas liver weight and breast muscle pH were checked after 15 minutes after slaughter. The conducted examination showed that chicken body and liver weights were significantly lower in the groups exposed to fasting. Feed and water deprivation in the examined birds did not affect the breast muscle pH after 15 minutes from the slaughter. The pH of breast muscles measured 15 minutes after slaughter was typical for good quality meat, which points to lack of disturbances in post-slaughter transformations in chicken breast muscles due to stress connected with a 12-hour fasting. The applied fasting induced a significant increase in the concentration of chlorine ions in blood. In case of magnesium, differences were found only between experimental groups. Its level in group III was the lowest, whereas in group II the highest compared to the other examined groups.
Keywords: broiler chickens, pre-slaughter fasting, slaughter value, blood parametrs
Accepted: 15 Dec 2015
Published online: 5 May 2017
Accesses: 605
Jakubowska, M., Gardzielewska, J., Karamucki, T., Rybarczyk, A., Byczkowska, B., (2015). The effect of different 12-hour pre-slaughter fasting regimes on selected slaughter traits haematological parameters and blood mineral concentrations in broiler chicken. Acta Sci. Pol. Zootechnica, 14(4), 65–74.