Efecto de la zanahoria Daucus carota y alfalfa forrajera Medicago sativa en la pigmentaciòn y caracterìsticas organolèpticas de la carne de pollo broiler, en la ciudad de Loja.

The development of the present investigation called "Effect of the carrot Daucus carota and forage alfalfa Medicago sativa on the pigmentation and organoleptic characteristics of broiler chicken meat", in the city of Loja, was developed in the sector Carigan Alto, had as objectives: Determine the effect of carrot (Daucus carota) and forage alfalfa Medicago sativa on the pigmentation and organoleptic characteristics of broiler chicken meat. Evaluate the productive parameters in the fattening of chickens with the use of carrot and forage alfalfa. Determine the profitability of chicken production with the use of carrot and forage alfalfa. Socialize research results with chicken producers. For the research, a poultry house with a capacity of 360 birds per production lot was used, in an area of 12m x 3m. The randomized block design was used, with three treatments and three repetitions each. In the study, 33 experimental units were used per repetition, giving a total of 297 chickens and lasted 35 days. The study variables were: food consumption, weight increase, feed conversion, mortality, yield to the carcass, profitability, pigmentation level and organoleptic characteristics, in treatment 0, treatment 1, and treatment 2. The management was in intensive and balanced feed was supplied in equal portions. The water supply for each treatment was different, in such a way that treatment 0 received pure water, treatment 1 received 5% of carrot extract and forage alfalfa + 95% of pure water and treatment 2 received 10% of extract of carrot and forage alfalfa + 90% pure water. The results obtained were the following: the treatment that presented the highest consumption of food was treatment 0 (control) with 5842 grams and the one with the least consumption, treatment 2 with 5721.55 grams. The greatest increase in weight was presented in treatment 2 with 571.94 grams, followed by treatment 1 with 562.93 grams and finally treatment 0 control with 555.36 grams. The highest final body weight per chicken was 3317.86 grams of treatment 2 and the lowest weight was treatment 1 with 3225.23. The treatment that obtained the best feed conversion was treatment 2 with 1,726, followed by treatment 1 with 1,792 and finally treatment 0 (control) with 1,810. The lowest mortality rate was obtained by treatment 2 with 2% and the highest treatment 0 (control) with 4%. The treatment that had the best percentage of yield to the carcass was treatment 2 with 86.32%, followed by treatment 0 control 85.94% and finally treatment 1 with 85.93%. The highest level of pigmentation of chicken skin to the carcass obtained treatment 2 with 3.5 on a scale of (1 to 5), and the lowest level of pigmentation was of treatment 0 control with 2. Treatment 1 and 2 presented the same organoleptic characteristics with 2.33 points on a scale of 1 to 3, and the treatment with the lowest score presented treatment 0 control with 1.66 points. Treatment 1 and 2 obtained equal profitability with 1.57, compared to treatment 0 control with 1.31. It is concluded that the application of alfalfa and carrot during the stage of fattening of the chicken, allows better levels of pigmentation and organoleptic characteristics. Therefore, the use of these raw materials is recommended because a better quality type of meat is obtained in organic form.