Effects of outdoor access days on growth performance, carcass yield, meat quality, and lymphoid organ index of a local chicken breed

An experiment was conducted to evaluate the effect of outdoor access days on growth performance, carcass yield, meat quality, and lymphoid organ index of a local chicken breed. In total, 864 twenty one-day-old male Suqin yellow chickens, with similar body weight (536 +/- 36g), were selected and raised in indoor floor pens that measured 1.42 x 1.42 m (2 m(2), 18 birds/m(2)) in conventional poultry research houses (36 birds per pen). Two hundred and sixteen birds were allowed outdoor access treatments at 21, 28, 35, and 42 d of age, respectively (access to outdoor for 35, 28, 21, and 14 days, respectively). Each treatment was represented by 6 replicates (pens) containing 36 birds (216 birds per treatment). In the outdoor access treatment, the birds had an outdoor free-range paddock that measured 3 x 8 m (24 m(2), 1.5 birds/m(2)). The body weight of birds at 56 d of age increased linearly with increasing outdoor access days (P < 0.001), but there was no effect of the outdoor access days on the body weight at 42 d of age (P = 0.161). The daily weight gain, daily feed intake, and feed per gain from 21 to 42 d of age were unaffected by outdoor access days (P = 0.401, P = 0.463, P = 0.223, respectively). However, the daily weight gain and daily feed intake from 42 to 56 and from 21 to 56 d of age increased linearly with increasing outdoor access days (P = 0.002, P < 0.001; P = 0.001, P = 0.004; respectively), while the feed per gain tended to decrease linearly from 21 to 56 d of age (P = 0.060). The mortality from 21 to 56 d of age was unaffected by outdoor access days (P = 0.261). At 56 d of age, the breast yield increased linearly with increasing outdoor access days (P < 0.001), while the foot yield decreased linearly (P = 0.016). The light (L*) and red (b*) values of leg meat color increased linearly with increasing outdoor access days (P = 0.032, P = 0.013, respectively). The spleen: the body weight ratio showed a decreasing and then increasing quadratic response to increasing outdoor access days (P = 0.047). The litter moisture content at 42 and 56 d of age increased linearly with increasing outdoor access days (P < 0.001, P = 0.013, respectively). The findings of this study suggest that increasing outdoor access days advantageously affects the body weight, daily weight gain, feed per gain and breast yield as well as the light (L*) and red (b*) values of leg meat color, while decreasing foot yield.