Growth performance, carcass characteristics, meat and egg quality, and intestinal microbiota in Beijing-you chicken on diets with inclusion of fresh chicory forage

Abstract

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of fresh chicory forage in chicken diets on growth performance, carcass characteristics, meat and egg quality, as well as intestinal microbiota. A total of 600 healthy 16 weeks female Beijing-you chickens were randomly assigned to four dietary treatments containing 0%, 5%, 8% and 10% chicory forage with six replicate pens and 25 chickens in each replicate. Chickens were raised in a free-range system for 13 weeks after seven days of adaptation. High-throughput sequencing was used to characterise the microbiota in three different intestinal sections (duodenum, ileum and caecum). The results showed that dietary supplementation of chicory forage increased (p