Efecto de la alimentación con subproductos del grano de cacao (Theobroma cacao L) en los parámetros productivos y calidad de carne de pollos criollos mejorados

Improved Creole chickens have been placed in Peru since 2015, however, to date there is not much research on these improved birds and less on the inclusion of cocoa bean by-products in the diet of these birds. For this reason, the objective of this research was to determine the effect of feeding cocoa by-product (Theobroma cacao L) in improved Creole chickens on production parameters (live weight, weight gain and feed conversion) and meat quality. (houghness, chicken skin and carcass color, cooking water loss, dripping water loss, and pH). In the investigation, 200 improved creole chickens (61±1.97 g of live weight, 10 days of age) were used. Four treatments were used (food diets: T1 - 0.0% cocoa by-product (SC); T2 - 2.5% SC; T3 - 5.0% SC; T4 - 7.5% SC), with 5 repetitions, each repetition with 10 mixed chicks. The experimental period comprised 12 weeks; water and food were supplied at will. At the end of the fattening period, the chickens were slaughtered to evaluate production parameters and meat quality. Better production parameters were observed with T2 compared to the other diets evaluated. In addition, a measure that increased the level of the cocoa by-product (greater than 2.5% SC) in the diet affected the productive parameters of the chickens. However, there were no significant differences (p > 0.05) in the quality variables of the meat evaluated in the investigation.