Carcass Chemical Composition
The fat content in the thigh muscle was significantly
lower in the outdoor birds of the 35-d group than the indoor birds and birds in the 70-d group (P < 0.05;
Table 5), whereas the breast fat content of the 35-d
group also had a tendency to be lower than that of indoor
birds (P > 0.05). No difference in protein content
was found among all the treatments (P > 0.05).
Table 6 shows the results of the fatty acid profile
of the thigh muscle. The thigh muscle of the birds in
the 35-d group had lower levels of C16:1, C18:1b, and
MUFA than did birds in the control group and the 70-d
group (P < 0.05). The thigh muscle fatty acid profile
of the birds in the 35-d group showed higher levels of
C18:2 and PUFA than those of the birds in the control
group and the 70-d group (P < 0.05).