Effect of Dietary Herbal Antioxidants on Meat Quality of Stressed Broilers

A study was performed with two hundred and sixteen day old vencobb broiler chicks in two batches during summer. In each batch 108 chicks were divided into 9 dietary treatment groups viz. T₁fed on basal diet (BD) alone;T₂-BD+viatamin E(200mg/Kg);T₃-BD+vitamin E(200mg/Kg) +selenium(0.15mg/kg);T₄BD+Tulsi(0.25%);T₅-BD+Tulsi(0.5%);T₆-BD+Turmeric(0.2%);T₇-BD+Turmeric(0.4%);T₈-BD+Tulsi(0.25%)+Turmeric(0.2%);T₉-BD+Tulsi(0.5%)+Turmeric (0.4%). Additionally 12 chicks were raised separately in stress free environment that served as the control group. Supplementation of diets with antioxidants ranged from 3.75–4.15(colour), 3.6–4.1(texture), 3.484.0(juiciness), 3.5–3.98(Flavor)& 3.6–4.0(overall acceptability) on 5 point hedonic scale. Antioxidant supplementation in different levels and combinations improved the scores over that of heat stressed (HS) with more striking hike with Group T₃. The TBARS (mg of melonoldehyde/Kg) levels was higher in HS group and were reduced in groups T₃ followed by group T_2.Tulsi at 0.5% and Turmeric at 0.4% were more effective than when supplemented at 0.25 and 0.2%, respectively in reducing MDA concentration. However, combination of herbals at different doses added no additive benefit than their sole inclusions,