Poultry meat quality starts with an intestinally robust feed formula

A study published on 1 October examines how diet can simultaneously affect broiler performance and technological attributes of the meat. Five diets were compared in 300 birds: a maize-based diet, two diets in which rice bran replaced 10% or 20% of the maize, and both of those formulations supplemented with 250 mg/kg of xylo-oligosaccharides (XOS). XOS are oligosaccharides used as prebiotics; they are not a general substitute for a balanced formulation.

Inclusion level proved decisive. The diet containing 20% rice bran without XOS produced the lowest final weight and poorest feed conversion. By contrast, the combination of 10% rice bran and XOS achieved the highest weight gain and most efficient feed conversion. It also delivered the highest carcass, breast and drumstick yields, alongside lower abdominal fat. At intestinal level, this diet recorded the best villus-height and villus-to-crypt-ratio values; in blood, it showed the lowest malondialdehyde concentration and the highest superoxide dismutase activity.

The meat response was differentiated but relevant: XOS groups had higher water-holding capacity and lower cooking losses, while the 10% rice-bran-plus-XOS formula also improved springiness and cohesiveness. However, the researchers observed higher drip loss in meat from XOS-fed birds. The practical lesson is clear: lower-cost fibrous ingredients should not be judged only by their price, nor XOS by a single metric. Translating this approach into a chicken-meat specification requires validation with the operator’s own raw materials, genetics, rearing conditions and chilling parameters.