Effects of dietary Nigella sativa seed supplementation on broiler productive performance, oxidative status and qualitative characteristics of thighs meat

The objective of our study was to evaluate the effects of Nigella sativa seeds (NS) supplementation on meat quality and antioxidants content of chicken meat. Two hundred 1-d-old male broiler chicks were divided into four diet treatment groups: normal control (baseline feed only), NS supplemented (1 and 2%) groups and a standard (200 IU/kg vitamin-E) VE group. At the end of this period, 10 birds were randomly selected from each group for examination. Feed conversion ratio was significantly lower in the treatment groups than the control one. There were no significant differences in moisture or crude ash percentage in thigh muscle among groups, but dietary NS powder supplementation resulted in a significant increase in crude protein content and decrease in crude fat content relative to the control group (p < 0.05). After 24 h, thigh muscle pH was higher while drip loss, cooking loss and shear force were lower in the NS groups than the control group. Lightness values of thigh muscle colour were decreased and redness and yellowness values were increased by NS supplementation. Muscle lipidperoxidation (malondialdehyde) level, which is correlated with significantly higher levels of glutathione peroxidase and superoxide dismutase, were significantly lower (p < 0.001) in the NS groups and VE group than the normal group. These results suggest that NS supplementation is effective at improving broiler performance and meat quality by enhancing antioxidant activities and suppressing lipidperoxidation in meat.