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Abstract
1. Differences in growth performance, physicochemical properties and fatty acid composition of breast muscle from water-stressed 16-week-old naked-neck (NNK) and Ovambo (OVB) chickens were investigated.
2. OVB chickens had superior (P < 0.05) slaughter weights at 16 weeks of age, average daily gain (ADG) and average daily water intake (ADWI) than NNK chickens. Body weights of birds at 16 weeks of age, ADG, average daily feed intake (ADFI), ADWI and water to feed ratio (WFR) declined progressively with increasing severity of water restriction while the opposite was observed for feed conversion ratio (FCR) values. NNK chickens had better FCR at the 40% of ad libitum water intake than OVB chickens.
3. Meat from NNK chickens had higher redness (a*) values at the 40% of ad libitum water intake but lower lightness (L*) and yellowness (b*) values at 70% of ad libitum and ad libitum water intakes compared with OVB chickens.
4. There was no interaction between strain and water intake on most fatty acids, except for the proportion of elaidic acid (C18:1t9) higher in meat from NNK compared with OVB chickens given water at 40% of ad libitum. Water restriction to 40% of ad libitum water intake had a positive influence on the proportions of linoleic acid (C18:2n-6), arachidonic acid (C20:4n-6), adrenic acid (C22:4n-6), docosahexaenoic acid (C22:6n-3), total polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA), total omega-3 PUFA and total omega-6 PUFA proportions, but resulted in lower proportions of total monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFAs) compared with 70% of ad libitum and ad libitum water intakes.
5. It was concluded that cooking loss, meat redness values, omega-3 and omega-6 PUFA proportions and n-6/n-3 ratio of NNK chickens improved with increasing severity of water restriction compared with OVB chickens.
SUPPLEMENTARY DATA
A Supplementary Table is available for this article and can be accessed via the online version of the journal at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00071668.2014.888396
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The authors appreciate the financial support of the National Research Fund of South Africa.