The Effect of Dietary Humic Acid on Some Carcass Traits, Meat Quality and Blood Parameters of Japanese Quails Subjected to Pre-Slaughter Feed Withdrawal Stress

Objective: In this study, we aimed to investigate the effects of fed supplemented different levels of dietary humic acid (HA), which is a natural feed additive, on cut-up carcass parts yield, on meat quality traits and some blood parameters of Japanese quail exposed to pre-slaughter acute stress (for 14 hours withdrawal). Material and Methods: For this purpose, a total of 184 mixed Japanese quails were divided into four groups, one of which was kept as a control (HC, HA=0) and was fed with commercial basal diet (BD) (24% protein and 2900 kcal/kg ME; NRC, 1994) until the end of the study. Different doses of HA were added to the other 3 groups in order to prevent the effects of physiological stress (H1=BD+%0.10 HA, H1.5=BD+%0.15 HA; H2= BD+%0.20 HA). Before slaughter, all dietary treatments were separated into two groups (23 quails/group). Half of birds were fed ad-libitum until 3 h before slaughter (Cont.) while the other half feed was removed (FW) for 14 hours to induced physiological stress. Results: Feed withdrawal stress and supplemented dietary HA did not affect the carcass weight. All meat quality characteristics were affected by AS treatment, whereas HA addition was effective only on pH24. Serum total protein levels decreased in the AS group while LDH increased. HA treatment showed the highest LDH level in the H1.5 group compared to the control group. Conclusion: These results indicate that pre-slaughter feed withdrawal stress affects the quail breast meat quality, however there is no significant effect of supplemented dietary HA.