The effect of cage density and meat storage period on some meat quality parameters in brown and white spent hens.

This study was conducted to determine the effect of different cage densities and meat storage periods on some meat quality parameters in drumstick and breast meat of brown and white spent hens. The study used three different cage densities as low (5 hens <i>per</i> cage), normal (seven hens <i>per</i> cage) and high (10 hens <i>per</i> cage) including 396 hens as 198 Hy-Line Brown (HB) and 198 Isa Tinted (IT). The feeding of chickens was <i>ad libitum</i> (20 - 60 weeks). At the end of the study, a total number of 54 chickens (27 HB and 27 IT) were slaughtered. Some chemical and microbiological analyses were carried out by separating the drumstick and breast area of the slaughtered chickens. According to the results of the research, the redness and yellowness values of the breast area were higher in the ITs. The effect of cage density was significant only for yellowness in the drumstick area. The effects of storage time, lightness and yellowness in the drumstick area and lightness value in the breast area were found to be significant. Bacterial density and thiobarbituric acid reactive substances values of both breast and drumstick regions of spent hens were higher in HBs, while pH values were higher in ITs. The bacterial density in the meat was increased during the storage period. In conclusion, cage density, genotype and storage time affected the microbiological and chemical quality of spent chicken meat. With this result, it can be said that meat quality studies, which mostly focus on broilers, are also important in spent hens.