EFFECT OF STRAIN AND AQUEOUS ADMINISTRATION OF GINGER EXTRACT ON SENSORY PROFILE OF BROILER CHICKEN MEAT

Abstract

The research was carried out to evaluate the effect of strain and administering concentrated ginger extract on sensory properties. A 270 day old chicks (Arbor acre Plus, Cobb 500 and Ross 308) were used in a completely randomized design experiment. The birds were fed a single-phased diet (23.34% CP; 2948.05 ME kcal/kg). The birds were randomly divided into three groups of 90 birds each, designated as groups T1, T2 and T3. The chicks in each group were further divided into 3 treatments with 3 replicates of 10 chicks. The experiment lasted for 8 weeks. The birds were administered a levelled table spoonful of Oxytetracycline® in 2 litres of water as recommended by the manufacturer (control), 4% and 6% aqueous ginger extract (treatment 2 and 3) in drinking water, respectively. Samples were collected from the breast meat at the end of the experiment to evaluate the sensory properties. The results showed that strains and ginger supplement had no effect (p>0.05) on all the sensory properties measured. However, treatment three (3) recorded the highest value for all parameters measured within strain while Treatment two (2) recorded the highest value for all parameters measured among the birds administered varying level of ginger extract except the value for colour which recorded lower value than treatment three (3). This study therefore suggests that ginger extract could be included in the diet of broiler chickens up to 6% for improved sensory properties of broilers birds.