Korean Journal of Agricultural Science ISSN:2466-2402(Print) 2466-2410(Online) 농업과학연구

This experiment was conducted to investigate the effect of Cordyceps militaris with probiotics (CMP) supplementation on the growth performance, meat quality and storage characteristics, and cordycepin content in the meat. Sixty one-day-old broilers (Ross 308) were allotted to two treatment groups of 30 each. In addition, six broilers were randomly assigned to a cage in the two treatment groups. The two dietary treatments were as follows: Control (CON) and basal diet + 0.5% of CMP. Body weight and feed intake were measured on the 1st, 14th, and 28th days from the start of the experiment. On days 1 - 14, the supplementation of CMP improved (p < 0.05) the body weight gain (BWG) and feed conversion ratio (FCR). Additionally, the feed intake (FI) and FCR scores in the CMP groups improved (p < 0.01) compared to the CON during the entire period. For the meat quality characteristics, water holding capacity (WHC), cooking loss (CL), redness (a*) in meat color value, and shearing force (SF) for the CMP group were improved (p < 0.01) compared to the CON group. For the meat storage characteristics, pH and thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) were improved (p < 0.01) when the broilers were fed CMP compared to the CON group. Broilers fed CMP had a higher (p < 0.01) cordycepin content in the meat compared to the CON group. In conclusion, CMP improves the growth performance and meat quality of broilers.