Influence of Vitamin E on Antioxidative Activity and Meat Oxidation Stability of Broilers

The purposes of this study were to evaluate the effect of the natural antioxidant VE on antioxidant activity of broilers and the oxidation stability of meat stored at 4 ℃,and also to determine the growth performance,slaughter parameters,meat quality and immune function of broilers.240 one-day-old Avian broiler chicks were randomly divided into three treatments with eight replicates of ten birds.Chicks were fed a corn-soybean meal basal diet supplemented with 0,100 and 200 mg/kg VE,respectively.The trial period was 42 days.The results showed as follows:(i)The supplementation of VE 200 mg/kg increased the yield of carcass,breast meat rate and leg meat rate,decreased the abdominal fat rate significantly;(ii)The dietary VE supplementation declined the shear force and a* value and increased the b*value of breast muscle,and decreased the water-loss rate of the leg muscle.The VE improved the meat quality significantly;(iii)The thymus index and burse of fabricicus index were improved as the supplementation of VE increasing.The newcastle disease antibody level was significantly higher than the control group at 200 mg/kg level;(iv) The VE content in serum and breast muscle were enhanced following the increasing dietary VE supplementation.The SOD activity and T-AOC in serum and breast muscle were higher and the MDA content in serum was lower than the control group at the 200 mg/kg supplementation level;(v) The supplementation of VE declined the MDA content of meat refrigerated at 4 ℃ for 6,8 days,delayed the progress of the lipid oxidation.At the experiment situation,the supplementation of 200 mg/kg VE could improve broiler's meat quality and antioxidative ability,enhance the oxidation stability and prolong the shelf-life of the chilled meat.