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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Vet. Sci.
Sec. Animal Nutrition and Metabolism
Volume 11 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fvets.2024.1451516
This article is part of the Research Topic Natural Compounds/Products and Livestock Productivity: Enhancing Antioxidant Levels, Gut Health, Mitigating Greenhouse Gas Emissions, and Disease Control View all 3 articles

Impact of long-term feeding a high level of Spirulina combined with enzymes on growth performance, carcass traits and meat quality in broiler chickens

Provisionally accepted
Maria Pinheiro Spínola Maria Pinheiro Spínola 1Mónica Costa Mónica Costa 1Ana Tavares Ana Tavares 2José M. Pestana José M. Pestana 1João C. Tavares João C. Tavares 2Cátia F. Martins Cátia F. Martins 3Cristina M. Alfaia Cristina M. Alfaia 1Verena Maciel Verena Maciel 1Daniela F. Carvalho Daniela F. Carvalho 3Miguel Mourato Miguel Mourato 3Madalena M. Lordelo Madalena M. Lordelo 3José A. Prates José A. Prates 1*
  • 1 Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Animal Health, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Lisbon, Lisboa, Portugal
  • 2 Higher Institute of Agronomy, University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal
  • 3 Linking Landscape, Environment, Agriculture and Food, Higher Institute of Agronomy, University of Lisbon, Lisboa, Portugal

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    This study evaluates the effect of prolonged feeding with a high inclusion level of Spirulina, combined with peptidases, on broiler chicken's growth performance, digesta viscosity, carcass attributes and meat quality. The experiment involved 120 male broilers divided into 40 battery brooders, each housing 3 birds. Post 7-day acclimatisation with a corn and soybean-based diet, the birds were provided with one of four diets: a corn and soybean meal-based diet (CON), a mix incorporating 15% Spirulina (SP), a Spirulina-rich mix supplemented with 0.025% of commercial VemoZyme P (SPV), or a Spirulina-rich mix supplemented with 0.10% of porcine pancreatin (SPP). The CON group had higher body weight and weight gain (P < 0.001) and a lower feed conversion ratio (P < 0.001) from day 7 - 21, compared to the Spirulina-fed groups. Spirulina-fed chickens significantly increased ileum viscosity (P < 0.05). Spirulina also elevated the weight (P < 0.05) of the duodenum and the length (P < 0.001) of the entire gastrointestinal tract compared to CON. Breast and thigh muscles from Spirulina-fed broilers displayed higher values of yellowness (b*) (P < 0.001), pigments (P < 0.05), and n-3 PUFA (P < 0.01), while n-6/n-3 ratio (P < 0.001) and α-tocopherol (P < 0.001) decreased relative to the CON. In conclusion, the introduction of a high level of Spirulina into broiler diets for an extended duration, has the potential to diminish birds' growth performance, possibly due to increased digesta viscosity. However, it does enhance the nutritional quality of the meat.

    Keywords: Spirulina, peptidase, broiler chicken, growth performance, meat quality

    Received: 19 Jun 2024; Accepted: 08 Aug 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Pinheiro Spínola, Costa, Tavares, Pestana, Tavares, Martins, Alfaia, Maciel, Carvalho, Mourato, Lordelo and Prates. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: José A. Prates, Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Animal Health, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Lisbon, Lisboa, Portugal

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.