EFFECT OF FREE-RANGE STRATEGY ON MEAT QUALITY AND EFFICIENCY OF CONVENTIONAL BROILER PRODUCTION SYSTEM

Abstract

Indigenous chicken (IC) genetic resources in Kenya constitute an integral proportion of the various classes of poultry in human settlements and positively affect national and regional food chains. Studies have shown that meat from IC is more preferred than that of convectional broilers because of it is chewy low fat content attributed to the low n-6/n-3 fatty acids ratio compared to broiler meat. The objective of this study was to design a production system strategy to produce broiler carcasses with characteristics similar to that of free-range chicken in the shortest time and at a reduced cost. In a completely randomized block design experiment, 240 day-old chicks (16 groups of 15 chicks per pen) were randomly assigned to four treatments i.e. the control group (D) where the day old chicks were fed the conventional broiler diet for the whole experimental period of 8 weeks; groups A to C which were released to free-range at 2 , 3 and 4 weeks, respectively in four pens each. Chicken live weights were recorded at 6, 7 and 8 weeks of age and 3 birds from each treatment slaughtered for carcass analysis. The results showed that the free-range strategy had a significant impact on the aroma and flavour of the meat (P<0.0001) with the 2-week release being the most preferred and the control the least preferred. In addition, free-range strategy had significant effects on the weight of the birds with the control being the heaviest and 2week release the lightest (P<0.0001). The cost of production was significantly different from one free-range strategy to another with the most expensive being the control and least expensive being the 2-week release (P<0.0001). Results of this study show that the longer broilers are exposed to outside access the tastier their meat. Key words: Conventional broiler, free-range strategy, production system