Sprouted rough rice as an alternative to corn for growth, health performance and meat quality of broilers

Abstract

Sprouted rough rice (SR) is not commly used for poultry diets but it could be a potential replacement ingredient to improve nutritional value of feed. This study aimed to evaluate the growth performance, carcass quality, blood lipids, hepatic enzymes, and fatty acid profiles of broiler meat when corn was replaced with sprouted rough rice in the feed. A completely randomized design was used with four groups and six replicate groups with 10 birds per replicate. The 4 treatment groups were 0, 15, 40 and 45 % sprouted-rice-replacement of corn. Growth performance and carcass quality were highest when corn was replaced with 45 % SR (p 0.05). Replacing 45 % of corn in a broiler diet with SR could improve the growth and meat paramenters of broilers.

Keywords

• β-Glucan
• Blood
• Fatty acids
• Germinated rice
• Growth
• Hepatic enzymes