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The effects of the dark house system on growth, performance and meat quality of broiler chicken
Author(s) -
Carvalho Rafael Humberto,
Soares Adriana Lourenço,
Grespan Moisés,
Spurio Rafael Sanches,
Coró Fábio Augusto Garcia,
Oba Alexandre,
Shimokomaki Massami
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
animal science journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.606
H-Index - 38
eISSN - 1740-0929
pISSN - 1344-3941
DOI - 10.1111/asj.12262
Subject(s) - broiler , zoology , biology , production system (computer science) , feed conversion ratio , veterinary medicine , body weight , medicine , production (economics) , economics , macroeconomics , endocrinology
Meat production with minimum animal suffering is a humanitarian concern. Thus, the objective of this work was to observe the performance of C obb broiler chickens from 7 to 46 days of age when raised under different installations: dark house system ( DHS ), conventional yellow system ( CYC ) and conventional blue system ( CBC ). The feed conversion ratio for the birds raised on the DHS was 3.8% and 2.7% lower than those for the CYC and CBC systems, respectively. Compared with the CYC and CBC systems, average daily gain under the DHS was 11.4% and 9.3% higher, respectively, and body weight at 46 days was 11.4% and 9.3% higher, respectively ( P ≤ 0.05). The birds' welfare was assessed based on their stress by determining the amount of pale, soft and exudative ( PSE ) meat in the breast fillets. The CYC and CBC birds had 24.3% and 25.3% PSE meat, respectively, whereas the DHS birds had 37.0%. We concluded that the DHS has a greater potential to produce broiler chickens, with superior performance to conventional systems, despite the higher stress faced by the birds during the maneuvers just before slaughter.