Impact of dietary Rhus coriaria (Sumac) powder supplementation on meat quality, serum minerals, and intestinal histomorphology in Cobb-500 broiler chickens

Abstract

Phytogenic feed additives are increasingly explored as antibiotic-free strategies to support broiler productivity, meat quality, and gut health. Rhus coriaria L. (sumac) is a polyphenol-rich spice with reported antioxidant, antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory activity, but the dose-dependent effects on carcass meat quality, serum macro-minerals and intestinal architecture in modern broilers remain incompletely characterized. This study evaluated the effect of graded dietary levels of sumac powder on breast and thigh meat quality, serum calcium and phosphorus, and duodenal and jejunal histomorphology of Cobb-500 broilers. Three hundred one-day-old Cobb-500 broiler chicks were assigned to five dietary treatments (0, 1, 2, 3 or 4 g sumac/kg feed; 60 birds per treatment, distributed among four pens of 15 birds each) for 35 days, and outcomes were analyzed by one-way ANOVA. Meat-quality and serum parameters were assessed in three birds/treatment and histomorphological outcomes in five birds/treatment, with the individual bird as the experimental unit. Sumac did not affect breast-meat water-holding capacity, drip loss, cooking loss, pH or sensory scores (P > 0.05). Thigh cooking loss decreased from 26.4% in controls to 5.7% at 4 g/kg (P = 0.001), and breast-meat lipid oxidation (thiobarbituric acid-reactive substances) tended to be lowest at 1 g/kg (0.31 vs 0.41 mg malondialdehyde/kg in controls; P = 0.058). Serum phosphorus was highest at 2 g/kg (6.20 mg/dL; P = 0.021); calcium was unaffected (P = 0.325). In both the duodenum and jejunum, villus length, villus width, villus: crypt ratio and estimated villus surface-area index were significantly greater, and crypt depth significantly smaller, at 1–2 g/kg than in controls or at 3–4 g/kg (P < 0.001 for all); tunica muscularis thickness was unaffected. Dietary sumac powder produced outcome-specific responses in Cobb-500 broilers: thigh-meat cooking loss decreased progressively with increasing inclusion, with the greatest reduction at 4 g/kg; serum phosphorus concentration was highest at 2 g/kg; and duodenal and jejunal villus architecture was most favorably altered at 1–2 g/kg, with no further improvement at 3–4 g/kg. These findings suggest that 1–2 g/kg sumac may represent a suitable inclusion level for altering selected histomorphometric indices of intestinal architecture, whereas higher inclusion (up to 4 g/kg) may be preferable when improved cooking yield is the primary objective; however, the small per-treatment sample sizes for meat and serum traits (three birds/treatment) and the absence of a pre-specified sample-size calculation mean these findings should be confirmed in an adequately powered, independently replicated trial.