title: Effect of β-glucosidase on the meat quality and digestibility in broilers.
abstract: This study investigated the effects of supplementary β-glucosidase on the carcass composition, meat quality, weight of digestive organ and apparent digestibility in male broilers. Two hundred and forty male, 1-day avine broiler chicks were randomly allocated into four treatment groups and fed with corn-soya bean meal supplemented with 0 (control), 0.6, 1.2 and 1.8 U/g of β-glucosidase respectively. The results showed that there were no significant differences (p > 0.05) among groups in carcass composition (percentages of eviscerated yield, half-eviscerated yield, muscle yield of breast and leg). However, adding 0.6 U/g β-glucosidase to the diet not only altered the meat quality by decreasing the drip loss ratio (p < 0.05) and relative lightness (L*) value (p < 0.01), increasing relative redness (a*) value (p < 0.01), but also significantly decreased the pancreas to body weight ratio (p < 0.05), however, with little effect on liver, proventriculus and gizzard to body weight ratio (p > 0.05). The length and width of duodenum villus were not affected by the addition of β-glucosidase, but the coefficients of total tract apparent digestibility of protein and fat increased by 9.02% (p < 0.05) and 7.40% (p < 0.01) respectively; the parameters of ash were not affected by β-glucosidase addition (p < 0.05). This study provided valuable information for evaluation of the effect of supplementary β-glucosidase on the meat quality and digestibility of broilers.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Molecular Animal Nutrition of the Ministry of Education, Animal Science College, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China.
authors.forename: L C
authors.initials: LC
authors.lastname: Qian
authors.forename: J Y
authors.initials: JY
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.forename: S J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Fu
mesh_terms: D000821:Animal Feed / Q000032:analysis; D000824:Animal Nutritional Physiological Phenomena; D000818:Animals; D001823:Body Composition / Q000187:drug effects; D002645:Chickens; D004032:Diet / Q000662:veterinary; D019587:Dietary Supplements; D004063:Digestion / Q000502:physiology; D008297:Male; D008460:Meat / Q000592:standards*; D001617:beta-Glucosidase / Q000494:pharmacology*
chemical_list: D001617:beta-Glucosidase