Effects of replacing soybean meal with perilla seed meal on growth performance, and meat quality of broilers.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate effects of replacing soybean meal with perilla seed meal (PSM) on growth performance, proximate composition of meat, meat quality, and fatty acids composition of meat in broilers. A total of 60 one-day-old chicks of ROSS 308 (initial body weight of 44.8 ± 0.4 g) were randomly allotted to four treatment groups (15 replicate cages with 1 broilers per cage) in a period of 5 weeks. Dietary treatments included control (CON) basal diet (corn-soybean meal-based diets) and test diets in which PSM was included at 0.5% (T1), 1% (T2), or 2% (T3) to gradually replace soybean meal. At the end of experiment, all broilers were slaughtered for collecting breast and thigh meat. At 5 weeks, T2 and T3 treatment groups had higher (p < 0.05) body weights than CON and T1 treatment groups. Weight gain was increased (p < 0.05) in T2 and T3 treatment groups. Feed intake was decreased (p < 0.05) in T3 treatment group. Broilers in T2 treatment group had lower (p < 0.05) feed conversion ratio than those in other treatment groups. In proximate composition of breast meat, there was no significant (p > 0.05) difference in moisture and ash. Fat composition of breast meat was significantly (p < 0.05) increased in T2 and T3 treatment groups. Regarding meat quality, broilers fed T3 diet had higher (p < 0.05) water holding capacity than those fed other diets. Regarding fatty acids composition of thigh meat, broilers fed T3 diet had higher (p < 0.05) linolenic acid than those fed other diets. In conclusion, soybean meal replaced by 2% perilla seed meal in broiler diet can improve growth performance, meat quality, and fatty acids composition of thigh meat in broilers. Perilla seed meal can be a lot of potential alternatives feedstuff for soybean meal in this study.