breast muscle characteristics of avian pathogenic escherichia coli infected broilers fed with antibiotics or probiotic

The study was conducted to evaluate the impact of feeding multistrain probiotic onbreast muscle characteristics of avian pathogenic escherichia coli (apec) infectedbroilers. three hundred and thirty six lohmann mb-202 day-old-chicks weredivided to four treatment groups, including cntrl (chicks receiving basal dietand not infected), apec (chicks receiving basal diet and infected with apec),apec-agp (chicks taking in basal diet containing 0.04% zinc bacitracin andinfected with apec) and apec-prob (chicks taking in basal diet containing0.5% probiotic bacillus and infected with apec). at day 35, birds were randomlytaken and slaughtered, and from which the breast muscles were collected for thedetermination of breast meat characteristics. the breast meat of cntrl had lower(p < 0.05) ph values than apec-agp and apec-prob birds. the breastmuscles from cntrl exhibited higher (p < 0.05) water holding capacity (whc)and water content than that from infected groups. crude fat was higher (p < 0.05)in apec-agp and apec-prob than that of cntrl and apec meats. crudeash was higher (p < 0.05) in apec-prob meat than that in other meats. the l*(lightness) values were higher (p < 0.05) in meats from apec and apec-agpthan in cntrl and apec-prob meats. the a* (redness) values were higher (p <0.05) in meat of cntrl than in apec-agp and apec-prob. the samples fromapec-agp had the highest (p < 0.05) values of b* (yellowness). palmitic, stearicand linoleic acids were higher (p < 0.05) in meat from cntrl and apeccompared to that from apec-agp and apec-prob. oleic acid was higher (p <0.05) in cntrl than in apec-agp and apec-prob meats. cntrl meat hadhigher (p < 0.05) antioxidant activity than apec and apec-agp meats. the 21,42.7, 40, 51 and 53 kda bands were intense in all meat samples from apec group,but less intense in some samples from cntrl, apec-agp and apec-probgroups. in conclusion, apec infection posed a negative effect on broiler meatcharacteristics. probiotic seemed to counteract infection and thereby alleviate thedetrimental effect of apec infection on meat traits .