Table 4. Effects of stocking density (SD) and dietary supplementation of vitamin C (Vit C) on breast meat quality of broiler chickens.
| Treatment | Breast meat quality | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SD (birds/m2) | Vit C (mg/kg) | Yield (%) | pH (1 h) | pH (24 h) | WHC (%) | CIE L* | CIE a* | CIE b* | TBARS |
| 9 | 0 | 16.78 | 6.38 | 5.69 | 69.41 | 44.72 | 3.48 | 12.68 | 0.45 |
| 200 | 16.69 | 6.29 | 5.75 | 69.38 | 42.98 | 4.27 | 12.68 | 0.43 | |
| 18 | 0 | 15.84 | 6.28 | 5.72 | 73.24 | 43.02 | 4.11 | 12.00 | 0.43 |
| 200 | 16.33 | 6.40 | 5.74 | 68.51 | 43.63 | 3.38 | 11.84 | 0.44 | |
| SEM (n = 6) | 0.466 | 0.066 | 0.042 | 1.458 | 0.888 | 0.467 | 0.427 | 0.010 | |
| Main effect | |||||||||
| SD (birds/m2) | |||||||||
| 9 | 16.73 | 6.33 | 5.72 | 69.39 | 43.85 | 3.87 | 12.68 | 0.44 | |
| 18 | 16.09 | 6.34 | 5.73 | 70.88 | 43.33 | 3.74 | 11.92 | 0.44 | |
| SEM (n = 12) | 0.329 | 0.046 | 0.030 | 1.031 | 0.628 | 0.330 | 0.302 | 0.007 | |
| Vit C (mg/kg) | |||||||||
| 0 | 16.31 | 6.33 | 5.70 | 71.32 | 43.87 | 3.79 | 12.34 | 0.44 | |
| 200 | 16.51 | 6.34 | 5.75 | 68.94 | 43.30 | 3.82 | 12.26 | 0.44 | |
| SEM (n = 12) | 0.329 | 0.046 | 0.030 | 1.031 | 0.628 | 0.330 | 0.302 | 0.007 | |
| Effect (p-value) | df | ||||||||
| SD | 1 | 0.18 | 0.96 | 0.82 | 0.32 | 0.56 | 0.79 | 0.09 | 0.85 |
| Vit C | 1 | 0.67 | 0.79 | 0.33 | 0.12 | 0.53 | 0.95 | 0.86 | 0.59 |
| SD × Vit C | 1 | 0.55 | 0.13 | 0.67 | 0.12 | 0.20 | 0.12 | 0.86 | 0.20 |
Yield, relative breast weight; WHC, water holding capacity; TBARS, thiobarbituric acid-reactive substances (malondialdehyde equivalents per g of meat sample); CIE, Commission Internationale de l’Eclairage.