Effect of dietary selenium on growth performance and meat quality of broiler chicken

Total of thirty two unsexed five weeks old Cobb strain broiler chicken were randomly allocated to four experimental dietary treatments of inorganic selenium (0, 0.15, 0.30 and 0.45ppm) in a completely randomized design to evaluate the effect on growth performance and meat quality of broiler chickens. The birds were fed the experimental diets for 7 days period after which they were humanely slaughtered. The inclusion of the sodium selenite did not significantly (P>0.05) improve the average weight gain, dressing percentage, the relative weights of the skin and feathers, shanks, head and giblets among the experimental birds. The water holding capacity (WHC) of the meat of birds fed the selenium supplemented diets was significantly (P<0.05) higher than the control, while the colour, odour, extract release volume (ERV), pH and purge loss were not significantly affected by the inclusion of the selenium in the diet. The 2-thiobarbituric acid (TBA) result showed significant decrease (P<0.05) in lipid oxidation from birds fed selenium supplemented diets compared to control. The carcasses from experimental birds also exhibited a more desirable breast and thigh meat color and a lower breast muscle pH when compared to control.