Research The Effect Of Housing Systems On The Growth Performance,Carcass Trait And Meat Quality Traits Of Quality Chicken

With the development of material life, the pursuit of high-quality, healthy and nutritional food have been became the fashion of consuming by people. The product of livestock and poultry is altering from quantity to quality. Chickens which are lived in natural, pollution-free mountain, hill country, forest land and orchard are favored by consumers. Free range can better fit the living habits of chicken, satisfy the requirement of animal welfare, and the chicken has colorful feather and delicious meat, while chickens in cage and floor are more conducive to growth and development, the control of diseases, better carcass performances and lower feed costs. In this article, we explore the effect of three different housing systems (cage, floor and free-range) on the growth, carcass performances and meat quality in quality chickens. The results showed that:1. The different housing systems have significant effect on the growth performances (P<0.05). The growth speed of chickens in cage are remarkable higher than which in floor and free-range, and the floor’s are high than free-range’s.2. The different housing systems have significant effect on the carcass traits and major internal organ (P<0.05). There are significant or very significant difference in the live weight, carcass weight, eviscerated weight, semi-eviscerated weight, leg muscle weight, pectoral muscle weight, abdominal fat weight, subcutaneous fat thickness, dressing percentage, eviscerated rate,semi-eviscerated rate, leg muscle rate, pectoral muscle rate and abdominal fat rate among three treatments (P<0.05or P<0.01). The overall performance is that chickens in cage are best, and free-range are worst. The weight of heart, gizzard, proventriculus, liver, comb in free-range is higher than which in floor and cage.3. There is no significant effect on the pH, b*of meat color, drip loss, shear force, crude protein, dry matter and crude water among different housing system. The fat of cage-chickens is significant higher than which of floor and free rang-chickens (P<0.05). Chicken in free-range have significant higher unsaturated fatty acids, essential fatty acids, essential amino acids, total amino acids, Inosinic acid and thiamine than floor and cage chickens (P<0.05). The muscle fiber density and diameter of leg and breast muscle are very significant or significant different among three treatments (P<0.05or P<0.01). The free-range chickens have biggest density and the cage chickens have biggest fiber diameter.In conclusion, in the three different housing systems, chickens in cage have best growth and carcass performances, and the chickens in free-range have best meat quality. Producer should choose appropriate housing system according to the practices and the requirements of the consumer markets.