Abstract:
Red grape (Vitis vinifera L.) pomace’s (RGP) beneficial bioactive compounds could improve
growth and meat quality traits in chickens and thus valorize RGP waste that is usually disposed in landfills to the detriment of the environment. This study investigated the effect of
RGP inclusion in diets of Hy-line Silver Brown cockerels on physiological and meat quality
responses. Five isonitrogenous and isocaloric diets were formulated by mixing a standard
grower diet with RGP at 0 (G0), 15 (G15), 30 (G30), 45 (G45) and 60 g/kg (G60). A total of
250, 5-week-old cockerels (304.6 ± 6.57 g live-weight) were evenly allocated to 25 pens replicated 5 times per experimental diet. No linear and quadratic trends (P > 0.05) were
observed for overall feed intake, body weight gain, feed conversion ratio, and meat quality
traits as dietary RGP levels increased. Erythrocytes linearly decreased (P < 0.05), whereas
mean corpuscular hemoglobin and urea linearly increased (P < 0.05) with RGP levels.
There were significant quadratic effects for glucose, phosphorus, total protein, albumin,
globulin, and cholesterol, from which a maximum RGP inclusion level was calculated to be
43 g/kg. In conclusion, dietary red grape pomace had no adverse effect on physiological
parameters and meat quality traits of Hy-line Silver Brown cockerels. However, including
red grape pomace beyond 43 g/kg could compromise serum biochemical parameters of the
birds.
