Table 4.
Effect of vitamin E and omega-3 fatty acids on wooden breast score of pectoralis major muscle of broilers.
| Item | Treatments1 |
SEM | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Control | Starter VE | Starter n-3 | Starter VE and n-3 | Grower VE | Grower n-3 | Grower VE and n-3 | ||
| Wooden breast score2 | ||||||||
| Score 0, % | 70.85b | 65.82b | 70.16b | 70.37b | 82.32a | 58.88b | 68.71b | 0.05 |
| Score 1, % | 16.75a,b,c,d,e | 26.67a,b | 14.68c,d,e | 20.38a,b,c,d | 7.00e | 27.78a | 21.42a,b,c | 0.04 |
| Score 2, % | 8.26b | 4.01b | 14.16a | 4.81b | 3.67b | 8.52a,b | 7.60b | 0.02 |
| Score 3, % | 4.14a,b | 3.50a,b | 1.00b | 4.44a,b | 7.01a | 4.82a,b | 2.27a,b | 0.02 |
a-eValues within a row without a common letter are significantly different (P ≤ 0.05).
1
Broilers in the control group were fed diets with standard level of vitamin E (VE; 10 IU/kg) and omega-3 (n-3) fatty acids (n-6/n-3 ratio of 30.2:1) during the entire study (0–58 d). Supplementation of additional VE (200 IU/kg), n-3 fatty acids (n-6/n-3 ratio of 3.2:1), or combination of both was performed during the starter phase (0–10 d) or grower phase (11–24 d).
2
Wooden breast (WB) scores were based on the degree of fibrosis, necrosis, and immune cell infiltration. Score 0 = none WB, score 1 = mild WB, score 2 = moderate WB, score 3 = severe WB.