Effects of dietary paddy rice on growth performance, carcass traits, bare skin color, and nutrient digestibility in geese

Abstract

ABSTRACT: The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of dietary paddy rice on growth performance, carcass traits, bare skin color, and nutrient digestibility in geese. A total of 300 twenty-eight-day-old male goslings were randomly divided into 5 treatment groups with 6 pens containing 10 goslings each. The geese were raised for 42 d on feed with 0% (control), 13, 26, 39, or 52% dietary paddy rice inclusion. Body weight and feed intake per pen were recorded from the arrival of goslings to the end of the trial. On d 70, two goslings were selected from each pen, one of which was used to measure slaughter performance, meat quality, meat proximate composition, and bare skin color, and one was used to determine nutrient utilization. The results showed that goslings fed a diet containing 26, 39, and 52% paddy rice had a higher final body weight, average daily feed intake, and average daily gain than those in the control group (P 0.05). Compared to the control group, the breast muscle of geese fed the paddy rice had a lower L* value and a higher a* value (P 0.05). In conclusion, paddy rice is an excellent energy source in geese diets and could improve the growth performance, breast muscle color, and utilization of total starch but increase the abdominal fat yield and decrease the bill color of geese.

Keywords

• paddy rice
• goose
• growth performance
• meat quality
• bare skin color