Table 4.

Broiler carcass characteristics, incidence of BBS and meat quality of broilers that were fed different levels of vitamin in the diets, with or without aflatoxin challenge, at 45 days of age

	Levels of vitamin supplementation								Probability							SEM
	Control				OVN				Vit	Afla	Bin	Vit × Afla	Vit × Bin	Afla × Bin	Vit × Afla × Bin
Afla, mg/kg	0	0	0.5	0.5	0	0	0.5	0.5
Bin, mg/kg	0	10 000	0	10 000	0	10 000	0	10 000
Carcass traits, %
Carcass	69.77	69.94	69.40	69.57	70.00	70.17	69.64	69.81	0.002	0.043	0.211	0.038	0.158	0.254	0.321	0.610
Breast	31.79	31.73	31.63	31.56	31.69	31.63	31.52	31.47	0.025	0.039	0.328	0.425	0.368	0.355	0.271	0.390
Legs	32.97	32.96	33.07	33.06	33.01	33.00	33.11	33.10	0.103	0.303	0.422	0.437	0.670	0.529	0.494	0.720
BBS, %
Unacceptable (L*>40)	10.67	10.33	12.00	11.66	7.67	7.33	9.00	8.67	0.011	0.458	0.632	0.224	0.355	0.157	0.287	5.160
Intermediate (L*>35 to 40)	19.33	19.67	21.00	21.33	16.33	16.66	18.00	18.33	0.034	0.287	0.189	0.255	0.098	0.152	0.114	7.210
Acceptable (L*<35)	70.00	70.00	67.00	67.00	76.00	76.00	73.00	73.00	<0.001	0.047	0.690	0.871	0.129	0.224	0.199	11.04
Meat quality
TBARS	2.83	2.85	2.95	2.97	1.49	1.51	1.61	1.63	0.003	0.018	0.348	0.388	0.412	0.255	0.221	3.360
Water loss, %	21.33	21.59	21.38	21.64	20.90	21.16	20.95	21.22	0.117	0.259	0.222	0.133	0.425	0.235	0.367	2.440
Tenderness, kgf	1.41	1.71	1.43	1.73	1.43	1.73	1.45	1.75	0.521	0.456	0.001	0.311	0.244	0.411	0.281	0.630

OVN = optimum vitamin nutrition; Vit = vitamin; Afla = aflatoxin; Bin = binder; BBS = black bone syndrome; TBARS = thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (measured as milligram of malonaldehyde per kilogram of sample).

L* indicates values of lightness.