Effects of Chinese Herbal Medicine Additives on the Production Performance, Slaughtering Performance and Meat Quality of Lingshan Ma Chickens Raised Under the Forest

In order to explore the effects of Chinese herbal medicine additives (Lonicera japonica, Pulsatilla chiensis, Coptis chinensis, Scutellaria baicalensis and Phellodendri Chinensis Cortex) on the production performance, slaughter performance and meat quality of broiler chickens raised under the forest. 60-day-old health Lingshan Ma chicken was selected as the research object. 1 500 chickens with similar weight were randomly divided into three groups (the control group, experimental group Ⅰ, and experimental group Ⅱ) and each group was repeated five times with 100 chickens (half male and half female) each time. The control group was fed with basic ration; the experimental group Ⅰ(probiotics group) was fed with the probiotic complex additives mixed with water on the basis of basic ration; the experimental group Ⅱ(Chinese herbal medicine group) was fed with the Chinese herbal medicine mixed with water on the basis of basic ration. The experiment lasted for 120 days. The results showed that the effect of weight gain by adding Chinese herbal medicine additives to feed the broiler chickens on the basis of basic ration was not significant, but the ratio of feed consumption and feed conversion were respectively 2.32% and 1.79% lower than those of the control group. Adding the Chinese herbal medicine additives could not only effectively improve the disease resistance of broilers, with the death and culling rate being the lowest (5.8%) and the slaughtering rate being the highest (94.2%), but also improve the slaughter performance and meat quality of broilers. The abdominal fat percentage, the percentage of half-eviscerated yield and the percentage of eviscerated yield in the Chinese herbal medicine group were all higher than those in the control group, which were significantly higher than those in the probiotics group (P<0.05). The flesh color and shearing force of breast muscle and leg muscle were significantly improved compared with the control group. The contents of nutrients such as protein, fat, unsaturated fatty acid, fatty acid, oleic acid, linoleic acid and 16 amino acids in chicken were all higher than those in the probiotics group and the control group. The above analysis indicated that the combination of traditional Chinese medicine, such as Lonicera japonica, Pulsatilla chiensis, Coptis chinensis, Scutellaria baicalensis and Phellodendric hinensis cortex could be considered as the candidate substitute of antibiotics for the feed additives of chickens raised under the forest.