Aim of this investigation was to determine the effects of herbal drugs such as garlic, black pepper and hot red pepper in broiler chicken nutrition on carcass primal cuts quality. Total of 1200 one-day old Hubbard broilers were totally randomly distributed into eight dietary treatments with four replicates each. Chicks were fed with three dietary mixtures: starter, grower and finisher. Dietary mixtures in the experiments were as follows: T1 (Control diet), T2 (Garlic powder 0.5 g/100g), T3 (Garlic powder 1.0 g/100g), T4 (Black pepper powder 0.5 g/100g), T5 (Black pepper powder 1.0 g/100g), T6 (Hot red pepper 0.5 g/100g), T7 (Hot red pepper 1.0 g/100g ) and T8 (Mixture of spices in ratio of 1:1:1 in total amount of 0.5 g/100g). Addition of herbal drugs had significant (p<0.05) influence on carcass quality of broiler chickens. The highest achieved body weight of chicken was in treatment T6 (2460.6 g) which was followed by treatment T7 (2442.4 g) with statistically significant differences (p<0.05) compared to other treatments. The primal cuts of the most economically important value such as drumsticks with thighs had the highest weights in treatments T7 (530.7 g), T6 (525.2 g), T2 (520.2 g) and T8 (497.1 g), with statistically significant differences (p<0.05) compared to treatments T4, T5 and T1 (438.5 g, 448.7 g and 461.1 g). When it comes to a share of primal cuts in a ready-to-grill carcass weight, significant differences were not observed (p>0.05), while significant differences in the share of wings and beck (p<0.05) were recorded under the influence of added herbal drugs. It can be concluded that the addition of garlic, black pepper and hot red pepper in broiler chicken nutrition showed positive influence on chicken carcass quality.

In the present study, the impact of synbiotic, compared to control treatment (CON), on growth performance and antioxidative status of broilers blood was investigated. The experiment was carried out on a total of 500 one-day-old broiler chickens of both sexes. The broilers were divided into two treatments with five replicates, based on a completely randomized design. The control treatment was fed basal diet, while experimental treatment was supplemented with synbiotic in addition of 1 g/kg of feed (SYN) in finisher period that lasted from 15 to 42 days of age. Diet supplementations with synbiotic led to increased body weight of broilers, compared to the control treatment. During the last 28 days, feed conversion ratio was significantly (P<0.05) improved in the synbiotic treatment (2.12), compared to the control treatment (2.21). The serum glutathione peroxidase, peroxidase, glutathione reductase and catalase activities were significantly higher (P<0.05), except of superoxide dismutase, in the supplemented treatment compared to the control treatment. Furthemore, there were noticed significant decreases (P<0.05) in malondialdehyde and glutathione content in the supplementary treatment. Based on the previously mentioned, it can be concluded that synbiotic can be applied as a growth promoter and as a natural antioxidant feed additive in broilers diet.

The aim of this study was to provide a comparative analysis of chemical and fatty acid composition, as well as of the connective tissue proteins in pigs of different genotypes, Mangalitsa and Landrace. Both pig genotypes were fed with the same feed of standard composition and quality. At the end of the fattening period, in total 24 pigs of both genotypes were slaughtered. Based on the analysis of the chemical composition we came to the conclusion that the protein content in both genotypes was similar. Moisture and ash content in the Landrace pig genotype differed significantly (P < 0.01) compared with genotype of Mangalitsa breed. Statistically significant differences (P < 0.01) were established in the fat content, which was 7.95 g/100 g, in pigs of Mangalitsa breed and 1.59 g/100 g in the Landrace pigs breed. Content of hydroxyproline, non-proteinogenic amino acids, in meat of Landrace was significantly higher (P < 0.01) compared to the content in the Mangalitsa breed. The same tendency was observed with regard to the connective tissue protein content, as well as with the relative connective tissue protein content. The fatty acid composition of the meat indicated that the most common saturated fatty acid (SFA) in both tested breeds was palmitic fatty acid (C16), whose content was significantly higher in Landrace (P < 0.01) compared with its content in Mangalitsa breed. In addition, the share of stearic acid (C18) was significantly higher (P < 0.01) in Landrace compared to Mangalitsa pig breed, what significantly contributed to the increase of the SFA share in Landrace compared to Mangalitsa breed. The most common monounsaturated fatty acid in both pig breeds was the oleic fatty acid (C18:1), whose share was significantly higher in Mangalitsa compared to the Landrace breed (P < 0.01). Out of the polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA), linoleic fatty acid (C18:2) was the most predominant in both pig breeds, with no statistically significant differences (P > 0.05). The content of PUFA was not statistically significantly different between the tested breeds, as well as the content of n-3 and n-6 fatty acids, which caused no statistically significant differences in the n-6/n-3 PUFA ratio. Ratio of the unsaturated fatty acids, i.e., of the sum of MUFA and PUFA, and of the saturated fatty acids was significantly higher in Mangalitsa compared to Landrace breed (1.86 vs. 1.4), and the same was observed when it comes to the relationship MUFA/SFA (1.51 in Mangalitsa vs. 1.08 in Landrace breed) and MUFA/PUFA (4.35 vs. 3.38).