Partially Dehulled Sunflower Seeds in Diets for Grazing Chickens: Effect in Meat Quality

ABSTRACT The effect of including partially dehulled sunflower seeds in the diet of grazing chickens in meat quality was evaluated. Two hundred and forty, one-day-old, Ross 308 chickens were used, randomly distributed into four treatments with six replicates of 10 birds each. Seventy-two birds were slaughtered at seven weeks of age, 18 per treatment, extracting the Pectoralis major muscle to analyze meat quality. The treatments were completely randomized in a 2x2 factorial arrangement, where type of rearing (confinement or grazing) and diet (base diet or base diet substituting 10% soybean meal for partially dehulled sunflower seeds) were the independent variables. The grazing chickens spent 8 hours a day in a white clover (Trifolium repens) paddock. Including sunflower seeds improved (p