Impact of different range areas on behavior, welfare, and performance of Naked Neck chickens.

This study aimed to evaluate the effect of different environmental enrichment tools on behavior, welfare, productive performance, and egg quality traits of Naked Neck chickens. A total of 1080 Naked Neck female chickens (30 weeks old) were used in the present study. A completely randomized experimental design, with 3 treatments having 4 replicates of 90 birds each, was applied. Treatments consisted of 3 different range areas A (121.9 m2), B (152.4 m2), and C (190.5 m2). Behavior (walking, feeding/foraging, sitting, aggressiveness wing flapping, perching, dust bathing, and range use), welfare (foot pad dermatitis, lameness, gait score, and feather pecking), productive performance (egg weight, egg production %, egg mass, and feed intake), egg quality traits (morphometry, egg weight, shell, albumen, and yolk characteristics) were evaluated. There was no influence (P > 0.05) of different range area on bird's behavior, and egg quality traits except walking and rang usage. The range area C promoted productive performance including egg weight, egg production %, egg mass and feed intake, but it did not influence welfare traits. It might be concluded that Naked Neck chicken when reared in free range with different range enrichments did not reveal any difference regarding behavioral parameters, egg morphometry, and egg quality traits. The range area within minimum length and effectively used environmental enrichments (perching and dust bathing area) should be used for backyard poultry to obtain ideal performance.

Impact of extruded flaxseed meal supplemented diet on growth performance, oxidative stability and quality of broiler meat and meat products.

This study was intended to explore the effect of extruded flaxseed meal supplemented diet on broiler growth performance, oxidative stability and organoleptic characteristics of broiler meat and meat products. 120 (day old) broiler chicks were randomly allotted to 12 experimental groups and fed on diets containing extruded flaxseed meal at 0, 5, 10 and 15%. The supplementation of extruded flaxseed in the diet decreases the body weight gain, feed intake and increased feed conversion ratio (FCR) values of broilers. The antioxidant enzymes were strongly influenced by different levels of extruded flaxseed supplementation among treatments. The TBARS assay revealed that maximum malondialdehyde were produced in T3 containing highest extruded flaxseed level (15%) and minimum malondialdehyde were produced in T0 treatment having no extruded flaxseed. The TBARS values ranged from 0.850-2.106 and 0.460-1.052 in leg and breast met respectively. The Free radical scavenging activity varied significantly and DPPH values of breast meat ranged from 20.70% to 39.09% and in leg meat 23.53% to 43.09% respectively. The sensory acceptability of broiler meat nuggets was decreased with the increase in the level of flaxseeds due to the lipid peroxidation of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) which generated off flavors and bad odors. Feeding extruded flaxseed to chicken through feed strongly inflated the quality and functional properties, fatty acid contents and reduced the oxidative stability of broiler meat and meat products. The present study concludes that up to 10% of flaxseed meal may be used in broiler diet to enhance the omega 3 fatty acids content in the broiler meat.