Effect of dietary supplementation with flavonoid from Scutellaria baicalensis Georgi on growth performance, meat quality and antioxidative ability of broilers

An experiment was conducted to investigate the effect of dietary supplementation with flavonoid from Scutellaria baicalensis Georgi (SBGFN) as SBGFN-zinc (SBGFN-Zn) on growth performance, meat quality, immune responses and antioxidation of broilers. A total of 450 one-d-old Arbor Acres male broilers were randomly allocated to 5 treatments with 6 replicates of 15 birds per replicate for each treatment in a completely randomized design. Birds were fed a SBGFN-unsupplemented corn-soybean meal basal diet (control) or the basal diet supplemented with 60, 120, 180 or 240 mg SBGFN kg−1 from SBGFN-Zn for 42 d. Dietary SBGFN supplementation affected (P<0.03) drip loss in thigh muscle, total superoxide dismutase (T-SOD) and glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) activity in liver of broilers at 42 d of age. Chicks fed the diets supplemented with 120, 180 and 240 mg SBGFN kg−1 had lower (P<0.03) drip loss of thigh muscle than those fed the control diet. Chicks fed the diet supplemented with 180 mg SBGFN kg−1 had higher (P<0.03) liver T-SOD and GSH-Px activity than those fed the diets supplemented with 0, 60 and 120 mg SBGFN kg−1. The results from the present study indicate that dietary supplementation with 180 mg SBGFN kg−1 as SBGFN-Zn improved both meat quality and antioxidative ability of broilers.