QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE FEATURES OF MEAT PRODUCTION IN COBB-500 CHICKEN HYBRID

The paper reveals some partial results issued from a wide range of assessments regarding poultry meat production. Thus, certain data referring to the muscle mass yield and to muscular tissue quality at “Cobb-500” hybrids are presented within. Quantitative side of meat production was analyzed through several parameters (live and carcass weight, slaughtering efficiency and trenched parts participation in whole carcass formation) while the qualitative properties were linked to muscular fiber’s thickness and to their cross surface area. Broilers of 42 days old, belonging to both genders, have been studied, the values being revealed for males and females and meanly calculated for all flock. Thus, average value of fresh carcass weight reached 1761.79±29.02g at both genders, leading to a slaughter efficiency value of 78.94%. Breast fillet participation in whole carcass reached 22.32%, value situated closer to that specified by the hybrid producer (22.63%). It has been also noticed that rear limbs parts (thighs and shanks) participation in whole carcass was higher in females than in males. Five representative pairs of skeletal muscles have been sampled: Pectoralis profundis et superficialis, Biceps brachii, Semimembranosus et Gastrocnemius medialis and served as biological material to be analyzed using photonic microscopy. White muscles (pectorals) were found to have the highest values for the myocytes’ thickness (41.11 μ ), while the contractile cells of the red muscles were thinner (the thinnest within the brachial biceps – 27.9 μ ).