Jojoba Seed Oil as Feed Additive for Sustainable Broiler Meat Production under Hot Climatic Conditions

SIMPLE SUMMARY: Sustainable poultry production has become essential to satisfy a growing global demand for high-quality meat protein. It is of the utmost importance to explore the merit of a new phytobiotic for the sustainable production of broiler chickens under tropical weather conditions. Thus, this study was conducted to evaluate supplementation of jojoba bioactive lipid compounds to broiler diets and its effects on growth performance and meat quality. The growth performance of broiler chickens fed with jojoba seed oil under tropical hot climatic conditions was linearly improved compared to the control group. Jojoba seed oil supplementation lowered abdominal fat and increased dressing percentage and meat quality compared to the control group. ABSTRACT: This study aimed to evaluate the impact of dietary addition of jojoba seed oil on productive performance, physicochemical attributes and carcass quality of broiler meat under tropical weather conditions. A total of 384 one-day-old Ross-308 were subdivided into four dietary treatments of jojoba seed oil: 0, 50, 100 and 150 mg/kg of control diet. Each treatment group included twelve replicates with eight birds each. The results showed that dietary supplementation of jojoba seed oil linearly increased (p < 0.01) feed intake, body weight gain and improved (p < 0.01) feed conversion ratio. Interestingly, diets supplemented with jojoba seed oil linearly (p < 0.05) improved the percentage of dressing and reduced abdominal fat percentage compared to the control group. Dietary supplementation of jojoba seed oil showed no effects (p ≥ 0.05) on the weight of internal organs, including liver, heart, gizzard, spleen and pancreas of broiler chickens. Increasing jojoba seed oil levels in the diet decreased (p < 0.001) percentages of cook and drip losses of breast and leg (drumstick and thigh) muscles of broilers. It was concluded that jojoba seed oil used as a feed additive up to 150 mg/kg improves growth performance and meat quality of broiler chickens in tropical weather conditions.