Influence of turning duration during incubation on slaughter characteristics of broiler chickens
Author(s): V Preethi, P Shamsudeen, K Sudha and K Rajendrakumar
Abstract: An experiment was conducted using 840 fresh eggs from commercial broiler breeders to evaluate the influence of turning durations during incubation on slaughter characteristics of broiler chickens. Total eggs were divided into seven treatment groups and eggs were turned once in one hour from day one to 18.5 days (444 hours) of incubation (T1-Control), 17.5 days of incubation (T2), 16.5 days of incubation (T3), 15.5 days of incubation (T4), 14.5 days of incubation (T5), 13.5 days of incubation (T6) and 12.5 days of incubation (T7). Thirty chicks hatched from each treatment group were randomly selected, sexed and divided into three replicates with ten chicks per replicate. All the birds were reared in open-sided deep litter system with standard and uniform feeding and management conditions for 35 days. At the end of trial, six birds from each treatment were slaughtered to assess the slaughter characteristics (per cent of pre-slaughter live weight) of the trial birds. The result revealed that the New York dressing yield showed no significant variation among treatments. Dressing yield differed significantly (p<0.05), with the highest value in T6 and the lowest in T1. Giblet, heart, gizzard and small intestine yields showed no significant differences. Liver and abdominal fat percentages varied significantly (p<0.05) with T? showing the highest liver weight and T4 the lowest, while abdominal fat was highest in T1 and T7 and lowest in T4. The findings indicate that turning duration of hatching eggs subsequently influenced dressing yield, liver weight and abdominal fat, while other carcass traits remained similar across all the treatments.
