Effect of Vachellia karroo leaf meal inclusion levels on growth, meat pH, shear force, cooking loss and shelf life of Ross 308 broiler chickens

Figures & data

Table 1. Ingredients and nutrient composition of the experimental diet in grower phase

Treatment levels
Feed ingredient	0	0.5	1.0	1.5
Maize	51.00	50.50	50.50	50.00
Wheat offal	12.00	12.00	11.50	11.50
Full fat soya	28.00	28.00	28.00	28.00
Fish meal	4.00	4.00	4.00	4.00
Limestone	1.00	1.00	1.00	1.00
Bone meal	2.95	2.95	2.95	2.95
Salt (NaCl)	0.25	0.25	0.25	0.25
Vit TM Premix^†	0.25	0.25	0.25	0.25
Dl-Methionine	0.25	0.25	0.25	0.25
l-Lysine	0.25	0.25	0.25	0.25
VKLM	0.00	0.50	1.00	1.500
Coccidiostat	0.05	0.05	0.05	0.05
Total	100.00	100.00	100.00	100.00
Analysed nutrient composition
DM (g/kg)	989.00	985.00	986.00	983.00
CP (g/kg DM)	199.00	198.60	197.80	197.40
Energy (MJ/kg DM)	17.10	17.11	17.10	17.10
EE (g/kg DM)	62.58	62.97	63.11	63.02
ADF (g/kg DM)	22.00	25.32	28.12	30.24
NDF (g/kg DM)	83.33	87.02	90.44	99.13
Ash (g/kg DM)	42.05	40.92	39.97	39.82
CT (g/kg DM)	0.11	0.19	0.26	0.31

Notes: † The active ingredients contained in the vitamin–mineral premix were as follows (per kg of diet): vitamin A 12,000 IU, vitamin D3 3,500 IU, vitamin E 30.0 mg, vitamin K3 2.0 mg, thiamine 2 mg, riboflavin 6 mg, pyridoxine 5 mg, vitamin B12 0.02 mg, niacin 50 mg, pantothenate 12 mg, biotin 0.01 mg, folic acid 2 mg, Fe 60 mg, Zn 60 mg, Mn 80 mg, Cu 8 mg, Se 0.1 mg, Mo 1 mg, Co 0.3 mg, I 1 mg. CP—crude protein; ADF—acid detergent fibre; NDF—neutral detergent fibre; CT—condensed tannins (g/kg DM).

Table 2. Dietary treatments for the experiment (22–42 days)

Diet code	Diet description
VKLM0	Treatment diet without Vachellia karroo leaf meal inclusion.
VKLM0.5	Treatment diet having 0.5 g Vachellia karroo leaf meal per kg DM.
VKLM1.0	Treatment diet having 1.0 g Vachellia karroo leaf meal per kg DM.
VKLM1.5	Treatment diet having 1.5 g Vachellia karroo leaf meal per kg DM.

Table 3. Effect of Vachellia karroo leaf meal inclusion levels on feed intake (FI) (g), body weight gain (BWG) (g), feed conversion ratio (FCR), final live weight (FLW) (g), dry matter (DM) digestibility (%), crude protein (CP) digestibility (%), metabolisable energy (ME) (MJ/kg DM) and nitrogen retention (N-retention) (g/bird/day) of male Ross 308 broiler chickens aged 22–42 days

Treatment*				Parameters^#
	FI	BWG	FCR	FLW	DM digestibility	CP digestibility	ME	N-retention
VKLM0	2806.6 ± 15.74	1815.0^ab ± 41.39	1.6 ± 0.04	2711.9^ab ± 62.82	57.1 ± 0.23	87.5 ± 3.33	11.2 ± 0.34	3.3 ± 0.17
VKLM0.5	2843.7 ± 55.78	1848.9^a ± 21.48	1.5 ± 0.05	2721.6^a± 40.12	57.2 ± 0.37	85.9 ± 2.21	11.1 ± 0.20	2.8 ± 0.21
VKLM1.0	2833.8 ± 47.52	1760.0^ab ± 30.76	1.6 ± 0.04	2625.3^b± 58.21	56.9 ± 0.22	85.2 ± 2.29	11.2 ± 0.33	3.4 ± 0.22
VKLM1.5	2840.3 ± 32.70	1753.3^b ± 45.82	1.6 ± 0.03	2598.5^b ± 65.84	56.7 ± 0.31	82.5 ± 2.22	11.2 ± 0.21	3.0 ± 0.17

Notes: ^a,b,cMeans with different superscripts in the same column indicate significant differences.

*Treatments were Vachellia karroo leaf meal inclusion level at 0 (VKLM₀), 0.5 (VKLM_0.5), 1.0 (VKLM_1.0) or 1.5 (VKLM_1.5) g/kg DM (Table 2).

^#Values presented as mean ± standard error (SE).

Table 4. Effect of Vachellia karroo leaf meal inclusion levels in a diet on pH, shear force and cooking loss of male Ross 308 broiler chicken breast meat at different storage time

Parameters^#			Diet*
	SP	VKLM0	VKLM0.5	VKLM1.0	VKLM1.5
Meat pH	0	5.6 ± 0.11	5.5 ± 0.05	5.5 ± 0.07	5.5 ± 0.08
Meat pH	7	6.6^a ± 0.07	5.8^b ± 0.07	5.7^c ± 0.07	5.6^d ± 0.06
Meat pH	14	6.1^b ± 0.12	6.2^ab ± 0.18	6.4^a ± 0.23	6.1^ab ± 0.07
Shear force (N)	0	14.4 ± 4.11	10.9 ± 1.43	17.7 ± 7.31	16.1 ± 2.91
Shear force (N)	7	9.2^c ± 0.55	12.7^b ± 2.39	9.4^c ± 0.69	19.5^a ± 2.51
Shear force (N)	14	9.2 ± 1.04	9.3 ± 1.78	8.6 ± 1.45	9.8 ± 2.45
Cooking loss (%)	0	36.3 ± 1.33	32.3 ± 1.14	35.0 ± 1.80	33.1 ± 0.60
Cooking loss (%)	7	29.4^ab ± 1.43	28.4^bc ± 1.03	30.5^a ± 1.51	26.3^c ± 3.35
Cooking loss (%)	14	21.1^b ± 1.75	25.5^a ± 2.18	19.3^b ± 0.24	22.4^ab ± 3.12

Note: ^{a, b, c, d,}Means with different superscripts in the same row indicate significant differences.

*Treatments were Vachellia karroo inclusion level at 0 (VKLM₀), 0.5 (VKLM_0.5), 1.0 (VKLM_1.0) or 1.5 (VKLM_1.5) g/kg DM (Table 2).

#Values presented as mean ± standard error (SE).

SP: Meat storage period at 0, 7 or 14 days.

Figure 1. Effect of incremental levels of Vachellia karroo leaf meal over time (days) on pH levels of breast meat.

Figure 2. Effect of incremental levels of Vachellia karroo leaf meal over time (days) on shear force (N) levels of breast meat.

Figure 3. Effect of incremental levels of Vachellia karroo leaf meal over time (days) on cooking loss (%) levels of breast meat.

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available in “figshare” at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.22683412