The Impact of Nutrition on Poultry Meat and Egg Quality

A special issue of Agriculture (ISSN 2077-0472). This special issue belongs to the section "Farm Animal Production".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 25 September 2025 | Viewed by 997

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Faculty of Agrobiotechnical Sciences Osijek, Josip Juraj Strossmayer University of Osijek, V. Preloga 1, 31000 Osijek, Croatia
Interests: poultry production; meat and egg quality; autochthonous breeds; nutricines; functional food; health food consumption
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Faculty of Agrobiotechnical Sciences Osijek, Josip Juraj Strossmayer University of Osijek, HR-31000 Osijek, Croatia
Interests: animal product quality; meat science; authentication of meat and meat products; nutrigenomics
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Poultry meat and eggs are a good source of nutrients, providing the consumer with high-quality proteins, vitamins, minerals, and essential fatty acids. The nutritional content and quality of poultry meat and eggs are primarily influenced by the composition of the feed, alongside various other factors such as genetics, sex, rearing system, season, stress, treatment of the animals prior to slaughter, storage method, etc., affecting the quality. Modern poultry genotypes have been created to produce large quantities of high-quality meat and eggs during the production cycle. However, to maximize their genetic potential, these animals need to be provided with excellent production and nutritional conditions. There are many innovations in poultry feeding, including various poultry feed mixtures developed with the aim of increasing the content of certain nutricines in the meat and eggs. When designing feed for poultry, it is important to consider the source and quantity of nutricines in order to increase their content in meat and eggs while maintaining their quality. In recent years, consumers have become increasingly demanding when it comes to the quality of the food they buy. The treatment of the animals during rearing, the nutritional composition of the product, and how these products affect their overall health and longevity have become extremely important to consumers. Due to these increased demands, the industry must innovate the production methods to improve food quality. Today, poultry products labelled as functional foods are already present on the global market, and innovations related to the production of meat and eggs with an increased content of one or more functional ingredients are the focus of many researchers. This Special edition aims to incorporate interdisciplinary studies that combine agronomy with biology, health, genetics, chemistry, and other relevant scientific disciplines to gather the latest developments on the influence of nutrition on the quality of poultry meat and eggs. The topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • Quality of poultry meat;
  • Quality of poultry eggs;
  • Sensory properties of meat;
  • Sensory properties of eggs;
  • Nutrigenomics;
  • Nutricines;
  • Antioxidants;
  • Stability and safety;
  • Functional poultry products;
  • Health food consumption.

Prof. Dr. Zlata Kralik
Dr. Ivona Djurkin Kušec
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • poultry
  • meat and egg quality
  • bioactive compounds
  • enhanced products
  • product stability and shelf-life
  • gene–nutrient interaction
  • consumer acceptance

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

13 pages, 262 KiB  
Article
Effects of Vegetable Oils Supplemented into Broiler Diet on the Fatty Acid Profile and Lipid Indices in Broiler Meat
by Zlata Kralik, Gordana Kralik and Manuela Košević
Agriculture 2025, 15(4), 441; https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture15040441 - 19 Feb 2025
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 535
Abstract
This paper investigates the influence of vegetable oils (sunflower oil (SO), rapeseed oil (RO), and linseed oil (LO)) supplemented into broiler diets on the fatty acids profile and quality of lipids in breasts and thighs, expressed through qualitative, nutritional, and metabolic indices. Broilers [...] Read more.
This paper investigates the influence of vegetable oils (sunflower oil (SO), rapeseed oil (RO), and linseed oil (LO)) supplemented into broiler diets on the fatty acids profile and quality of lipids in breasts and thighs, expressed through qualitative, nutritional, and metabolic indices. Broilers of the Ross 308 hybrid were divided into three groups and fattened over 6 weeks. During the last three weeks of fattening, broilers were fed a finisher diet that differed in types of supplemented oil. Diets were balanced at the level of 19.80% crude protein and 13.5 MJ ME/kg of feed. Feed and water were offered to broilers ad libitum. Fatty acid profiles were determined in samples of broiler breasts and thighs, based on which lipids health indices were calculated. Quantitative indices (polyunsaturated fatty acids-∑PUFA/saturated fatty acids-∑SFA, ∑PUFA n-6/∑PUFA n-3, linoleic acid-LA/α-linolenic acid-ALA, and eicosapentaenoic acid-EPA+ docosahexaenoic acid-DHA) were influenced by the type of oil (p < 0.001), whereas the type of meat was only important for the index of ∑PUFA/∑SFA (p < 0.001). Nutritional indices (nutritional value index-NVI, atherogenicity index-AI, thrombogenicity index-TI, hypo/hypercholesterolemic index-hHI, health-promoting index-HPI) depended on both factors (p < 0.001). The metabolic indices (elongase index-EI, thioesterase index-THI, ∆9-desaturase, ∆5 + ∆6-desaturase, kinetic activity index-KHI) were significantly affected by the type of meat (p < 0.001), as well as by the feeding treatments (p < 0.05), except for the EI index. This research confirmed that oils supplemented into broiler feed influence the fatty acid profiles in broiler meat. It has also been confirmed that the fatty acid profile affects the lipid quality in meat, which may be beneficial for consumers’ health. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Impact of Nutrition on Poultry Meat and Egg Quality)
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