Effects Of Dietary Low-energy For Broiler Breeders On Meat Quality Of Their Offspring During Late Laying Period

Nutrition is the absolute foundation for life. For poultry, the developing embryo and the hatched chick are completely dependent for their growth and development on nutrients deposited in the egg. Maternal nutrition may alter the nutrient supply deposited in the egg to the fetus and thereby affect the fetal production of growth factors and finally affect nutrient availability to the fetus. It was considered a effective method that improvement on meat quality of broilers could be realized by regulating maternal nutrients. The current study was carried out to evaluate effects of dietary low-energy for broiler breeders on growth performance, carcass quality, meat quality and antioxidative capacity of their offspring.27020-week-old AA Broiler Breeders with similar initial weight were subjected to a completely randomized experimental design with3different treatments, in which each treatment included6replicates of15birds. Treatment1was the control group, in which normal energy density diets were fed during the experiment (ND,11.70MJ/kg of ME). In treatments2and3, the levels of energy were decreased by20and30%(LD20,9.36MJ/kg of ME and LD30,8.19MJ/kg of ME), respectively while levels of the other nutrition were the same. The experiment, in which the broiler breeders were restrictively fed the same amount of diets, was conducted when laying rate reached5%. After artificial insemination and incubation ranged from60th to62th weeks of age,601-d-old male broilers per treatment were randomly subjected into6replicates and fed the same corn-soybean-based diets ad libitum for42days.The results were showed as follows:1. The fertility, hatchability and percentage of saleable chicks was not affected by the dietary low-energy for broiler breeders (P>0.05).2. Offspring from either LD20or LD30group had lower birth weight but higher body weight when they were42-d-old and higher ADFI and ADG for the1-to21-d interval (P<0.05). In addition, offspring from LD20had higher ADFI and ADG for the1-to42-d interval (P<0.05).3. Offspring42-d-old from LD20group had a higher breast muscle as a percentage of body weight (P<0.05). Thigh muscle and abdominal fat as percentages of body weight of offspring were not affected significantly (P>0.05).4. Offspring from LD30had a higher intramuscular fat content of breast muscle when they were21-d-old (P<0.05), a higher intramuscular fat content and a lower moisture content of thigh muscle when they were42-d-old (P<0.05). In addition, protein content of muscles were not affected significantly (.P>0.05).5. Offspring21-d-old from LD30group had a lower a*value than other two groups (P<0.05). Additionally, offspring from either LD20or LD30group had a lower shear force and a higher pH value whenever they were21-d-old or42-d-old (P<0.05).6. Offspring from either LD20or LD30group had a higher T-SOD activity in breast muscle when they were21-d-old and a higher T-AOC activity when they were42-d-old (P<0.05). Additionally, activity of T-SOD in breast muscle of42-d-old offspring from LD30group decreased while the content of MDA declined significantly (P<0.05). Activity of T-AOC in serum of42-d-old offspring from both LD20and LD30group was significantly increased, as well as the activity of T-SOD in serum when the broiler breeders were fed LD30(P<0.05).The above results showed that the effects of maternal dietary low-energy on offspring were significant. Growth and meat quality of offspring were improved escpecialy when the broiler breeders were fed LD30. It was concluded that the70%energy diet was more suitable in practical production than the others during the late laying period of broiler breeders.