Effects of dietary supplementation with yeast cell wall, palygorskite and their combination on the growth performance, meat quality, muscular antioxidant ability and mineral element content of broilers

This study was conducted to investigate the individual and combined effects of yeast cell wall (YCW) and palygorskite (Pal) on growth performance, meat quality, muscular antioxidant ability and mineral element content of broilers. A total of 256 one-day-old male Arbor Acres broiler chicks were randomly divided into a 2 (YCW) × 2 (Pal) factorial arrangement with 8 replicates of 8 chicks per replicate for a 42-day feeding trial. Dietary treatments were: 1) Basal diet; 2) Basal diet supplemented with 1 g/kg YCW; 3) Basal diet supplemented with 10 g/kg Pal and 4) Basal diet supplemented with a mixture of 1 g/kg YCW and 10 g/kg Pal. Treatments did not affect growth performance of broilers. Compared to the control group, the inclusion of YCW plus Pal increased the redness 24 h ( P =0.032) and pH 24 h value ( P =0.006) whereas reduced malondialdehyde (MDA) concentration ( P =0.001) of the thigh muscle. Similarly, a combination of YCW and Pal also decreased copper (Cu) ( P =0.019) and chromium (Cr) ( P =0.001) accumulations in the breast muscle. In conclusion, the capacity to improve meat quality, muscular oxidative status and muscular mineral composition was more pronounced when supplementing a combination of YCW and Pal rather than their separate inclusion.