The current study aimed to determine the effects of different levels of Zingiber officinale as a herbal feed additive on growth performance, carcass characteristic, serum biochemistry, total bacterial count (TBC), gut morphology, and immunological parameters of broilers. A total of 1500, day-old broiler chicks (Hubbard) were equally accredited to five treatment groups, each with six replicates (50 birds/replicate). Five experimental diets were prepared using basal diet i.e. with antibiotics positive control (PC), 3 g/kg ginger (group A), 6 g/kg ginger (group B), 9 g/kg ginger (group C) and without antibiotics negative control (NC). Group A and C showed significantly (p<0.05) higher feed intake (FI) as compared to other groups. Group C showed significantly (p<0.05) lower Total bacterial count (TBC) followed by group B as compared to NC. Carcass characteristics showed non-significant effects among different treatments. Mean villi length and width were significantly (p <0.05) higher in all ginger supplemented groups as compared to the control groups. Blood serum parameters including cholesterol, triglycerides, and low-density lipoproteins (LDL) were significantly (p<0.05) lower in groups B and C in comparison with the control groups. Whereas high-density lipoproteins (HDL) was significantly higher in group B as compared to the others. In conclusion, ginger supplementation @0.6% in the basal diet significantly improved growth performance and gut morphometry of broilers. It also showed a positive impact on cholesterol, triglycerides and gut microbes. Therefore, ginger could be a better substitute for antibiotic growth promoters.

The present study aimed to investigate the effect of wet aging on meat quality characteristics of Longissimus lumborum (LL) and Gluteus medius (GM) muscles of buffalo bulls. Meat samples from six aging periods, i.e., 0 day (d) = control, 7 d, 14 d, 21 d, 28 d, and 35 d, were evaluated for pH, color, metmyoglobin content (MetMb%), cooking loss, water holding capacity (WHC), myofibrillar fragmentation index (MFI), Warner–Bratzler shear force (WBSF), and sensory evaluation. The pH, instrumental color redness (a *), yellowness (b *), chroma (C *), and MetMb% values were increased, while the lightness (L *) and hue angle (h *) values showed non-significant (p > 0.05) differences in both LL and GM muscles in all aging periods. The cooking loss increased while WHC decreased till 35 days of aging. MFI values significantly (p < 0.05) increased, while WBSF values decreased; in addition, sensory characteristics were improved with the increase in the aging period. Overall, the color, tenderness, and sensory characteristics were improved in LL and GM muscles until 28 and 21 days of aging, respectively. Based on the evaluated meat characteristics, 28 days of aging is required to improve the meat quality characteristics of LL, whereas 21 days of aging is suitable for GM muscle.

Food Science of Animal Resources (Food Sci. Anim. Resour.) is an international, peer-reviewed bimonthly journal publishing original research and reviews on basic and applied aspects of the use of animal resources including the meat, egg, dairy, and edible insect/worm products. Food Sci. Anim. Resour. is published and distributed by the Korean Society for Food Science of Animal Resources.

The study was designed to investigate the effect of mannan-oligosaccharide (MOS) supplementation on intestinal histomorphology, immunity against Newcastle disease virus (NDV) and productive parameters of broilers. A total of 1800, day old broiler chicks of Cobb-500 strain were selected and randomly assorted into 6 treatment groups: T1 (basal diet without antibiotics as negative control); T2 (basal diet plus antibiotics as positive control group); T3 (basal diet plus 200g/ton MOS); T4 (basal diet plus 400g/ton MOS); T5 (basal diet plus 600g/ton MOS) and T6 (basal diet plus 800g/ton MOS). Each treatment was having 6 replicates and the feed intake, body weight gain and feed conversion ratio (FCR) were recorded on weekly basis. Results showed that, MOS supplemented birds have significantly higher feed intake, weight gain and FCR (P < 0.05). Similarly, supplementation of MOS showed positive effect on villus height and crypt depth both in jejunum and ilium. Goblet cell density was unaffected by MOS addition (P < 0.05). Furthermore, birds fed with diets containing MOS, exhibited better productive performance in comparison to positive and negative control groups. In conclusion, MOS can replace antibiotic growth promoters (AGPs) as non-microbial performance-enhancing feed advocates.

The present study determined the effect of the packaging type and aging time on the meat quality of water buffalo (Bubalus bubalis) bulls. A total of n = 36 longissimus lumborum (LL) muscles from n = 18 buffalo bulls were obtained. Half LL muscles were packed in modified atmosphere packaging (Hi-O₂ MAP), vacuum packaging (VP), and oxygen-permeable packaging (OP) on day 1, while the other half were aged for 7 days. Meat instrumental color, cooking loss, Warner–Bratzler shear force (WBSF), thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS), and total volatile basic nitrogen (TVB-N) of the LL steaks were analyzed, both on unaged and aged buffalo meat. Color CIE L* and C* values on all display days and a* on the first 4 days of the simulated retail display under Hi-O₂ MAP packaging were significantly higher than those of the VP and OP. WBSF and TBARS values were also higher under Hi-O₂ MAP as compared to the other packaging. Steaks under OP exhibited lower cooking loss but higher TVB-N values than the MAP and VP. The 7-day-aged buffalo meat indicated higher instrumental color (L*, a* and C*), cooking loss, and lower WBSF values than fresh meat. This study concluded that Hi-O₂ MAP improved the color; however, it negatively influenced the buffalo meat’s WBSF and TBAR values. Furthermore, VP and aging were the most effective in decreasing the WBSF values of buffalo meat.