Table 5. The effects of increasing stocking density rates on meat quality parameters of Ross 308 broiler chickens.

	1Stocking density rates						P value
Parameters	SD10	SD15	SD20	SD25	SD30	3SEM	GLM	Linear	Quadratic
Cook loss (%)	15.27	17.84	14.61	17.08	14.82	1.838	0.653	0.779	0.568
Drip loss (%)	2.86	2.77	2.45	3.88	1.95	0.847	0.598	0.794	0.553
2WHC (%)	18.91	22.8	21.74	21.46	18.45	1.993	0.438	0.694	0.074
Shear force (N)	3.75	3.77	3.88	3.75	3.62	0.09	0.353	0.282	0.100
pH	5.84	5.98	6.06	5.75	5.87	0.07	0.054	0.529	0.167
L* (Lightness)	58.25	60.76	55.15	56.67	57.83	1.95	0.369	0.446	0.562
a* (Redness)	2.19	1.54	1.61	2.31	1.76	0.34	0.405	0.928	0.537
b* (Yellowness)	12.16	13.3	11.84	11.66	12.35	1.35	0.922	0.762	0.941
Chroma	12.38	13.39	11.97	11.93	12.49	1.35	0.940	0.765	0.919
Hue angle	1.39	1.45	1.43	1.37	1.42	0.03	0.248	0.847	0.551

¹Stocking density rates: SD10 = stocking density of 10 birds/pen; SD15 = stocking density of 15 birds/pen; SD20 = stocking density of 20 birds/pen; SD25 = stocking density of 25 birds/pen; SD30 = stocking density of 10 birds/pen.

²WHC = water holding capacity.

³SEM = standard error of the mean.