The Investigation of Meat Quality Parameters of Broiler Chickens Fed with Pomegranate Peel Powder and Probiotic Supplements

This study investigated the effect of adding probiotics, pomegranate peel powder, and mixtures to broiler chicken diets on carcass performance, breast, leg, and visceral meat quality characteristics. For this purpose, male Ross 308 broiler chickens were divided into four groups. The control group was fed basal feed; the remaining three groups were fed basal feed with probiotics (1.5 g/kg), pomegranate peel powder (3 g/kg), and probiotics (1.5 g/kg) + pomegranate peel powder (3 g/kg) as ad-libitum. Broiler chickens were slaughtered on the 35th and 42nd day of growth, and the carcasses were analyzed after rigor mortis. Carcass and giblets were investigated as the main characteristics of broiler meat and its technological properties. While the additives added to the feed did not affect the carcass weights, a decrease in heart and gizzard weights (P<0.05). While additives generally did not affect the dry matter and protein values in the carcass parts, probiotics were affected by increasing the pH value (P<0.05). The cooking losses of hard gizzards such as the heart and gizzard tended to decrease. An increase was determined in water retention capacity of leg and breast meat in both probiotic and pomegranate peel-added groups, however, firmness and durability values were not affected. Color values were also affected by the added probiotic and pomegranate peel, and an increase was determined in the L*, a* values. As a result, while the probiotics and pomegranate peel added to the feed in the diet of broiler chicken meat did not affect the carcass weights in terms of productivity, positive developments were observed in technological properties of the meat. KEYWORDS: Broiler, Performance, Pomegranate peel powder, Probiotic, Carcass, Meat Quality.