CARCASS QUALITY OF THE FAYOUMI AND RHODE ISLAND RED CHICKS IN RELATION TO ANTIBIOTICS SUPPLEMENTATION

Document Type : Research article

Authors

Department of Animal Production, Faculty of Agriculture, Assiut University

Abstract

An experiment was conducted with growing Fayoumi and Rhode Island Red chicks to study the influence of oxytetracycline supp lementation (50 ppm) on their carcass quality at 16 weeks of age. It was reached to the following results :
1. The degree of fleshing in R.I.R., as determined by carcass measurements, can be improved by oxytetracycline supplementation.
This effect was not pronounced in the Fayoumi.
2. The use of oxytetracycline caused an increase in most of edible parts such as breast muscles and leg muscles. However, it seems that it had no effect on some inedible parts such as blood, head, feather and bone percentages. In the same time, it was as sociated with a decrease in the giblets percentage.
3. The treatment significantly increased the dressing percentage and the total edible meat percentage of the chicks at 16 weeks of age. However, the values of the New York dressed carcass were not affected.