Abstract
This study was conducted to show that dietary supplementation of fungi, Aspergillus awamori and Aspergillus niger so called Koji in Japan, improves growth performance and meat quality in broiler chickens. Total number of 42 chicks at 15 d of age with average weight (365 +/- 3) were divided into 7 treatments (n=6). First treatment as control was fed control diet and other chicks were fed diets supplemented with either A. awamori or A. niger at the levels of 0.01, 0.05 and 0.1%. The birds were raised for 12 d from 15 d of age to evaluate the effect on growth, organs weights, abdominal fat content, muscle fatty acids contents, muscle thiobarbituric acid reactive substance (TBARS) and plasma biochemical parameters etc. Body weight gain was increased, and feed intake and feed conversion ratio were decreased by the fungi. Plasma 3-methylhistidine as an index of skeletal muscle protein breakdown tended to be decreased by the fungi. Due to the fungi, abdominal fat and plasma cholesterol were decreased, while fat content in the breast muscle was increased. Interestingly, muscle a-tocopherol content was increased, and muscle TBARS as an index of lipid oxidation were decreased by the fungi, indicating anti-oxidative activities of the fungi. Furthermore, it was observed a decrease in saturated fatty acid and increases in unsaturated fatty acids due to the fungi in the muscle fat. In conclusion, feeding A. awamori and A. niger improved growth performance and meat quality in broiler chickens.