Effects of Varying Levels of Shrimp Meal on Production Performance, Sensory Attributes, and Meat Quality of Broiler Chickens

The study was aimed to evaluate the impact of different levels of shrimp meal inclusion on the growth performance, sensory attributes, and meat quality of broiler chickens. Three groups of 56 chicks each were randomly selected from a total of 168 day-old mixed-sex broiler chicks and divided into 7 replicates of 8 chicks. The experimental groups included SM1 (2.5% shrimp meal), SM2 (5% shrimp meal), and a control group fed a diet without shrimp meal. Body weight gain, feed intake, and feed conversion ratio were measured on days 0, 7, 14, 21, 28, and 35. At the end of the trial, muscle pH, water holding capacity, colour, flavour, tenderness, cooking loss and biochemical parameters were assessed. The study found that final body weights and average daily gain in SM2 group were significantly higher compared to control group and overall FCR showed better in SM2 group compared to SM1 and control groups. There were no significant effects on blood-biochemical profile, sensory qualities, excepting flavour, muscle pH and WHC value but there was significant difference in cooking loss among the treatments. The study findings show that incorporating up to 5% shrimp meal into a broiler diet primarily composed of maize and soybeans is safe and does not adversely impact the birds' performance.