Objective.

To study meat and carcass quality in broilers fed Roystonea regia (royal palm nut) fruits meals.

Materials and methods.

A total of 40 broilers distributed according to a completely randomized design were used in four treatments: control (corn-soybean paste) and the inclusion of 5, 10 and 15 % royal palm nut meal. The carcass yield, abdominal fat and meat quality (technological and fatty acid composition (FA)) were studied. For the appearance parameters, a non-parametric analysis of simple classification was performed.

Results.

There were no differences between treatments for carcass weight and pH at 45 minutes and 24 hours postmortem. There was a reduction in abdominal fat by 5 and 15 % compared to the control (13.00 and 11.96 vs. 17.02 g / kg), while 10 % did not differ from the rest (15.10 g/kg) (p<0.01). There were no differences in color, except for the luminosity in the drumstick that was superior with the inclusion of 10 and 15 % (48.62 and 49.22) with respect to 5 % (45.32) and the control did not differ between treatments (47.53) (p<0.05). The composition of FA in the different edible portions showed that the broilers deposited oleic, linoleic and palmitic acids in higher proportions.

Conclusions.

The inclusion of royal palm nut meal in broiler diets does not change the carcass yield, reduces abdominal fat and positively affects meat quality indicators.

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