ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Vet. Sci.
Sec. Animal Nutrition and Metabolism
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fvets.2025.1671325
This article is part of the Research TopicSustainable Nutritional Strategies for Improving Health Status, Egg and Meat Quality in PoultryView all 20 articles
Effects of Dietary Fibrafid as Phytogenic Supplementation in Standard and Nutrient-Reduced Diets on Breast Meat Quality, Carcass Traits, Histopathology, and Feed Efficiency in Heat-Stressed Broilers
Provisionally accepted
Maged Ahmed Al-Garadi*
Rashed A Alhotan
Elsayed O Hussein
Mohammed M. Qaid*
Gamaleldin M. SulimanMohammed A Al-BadwiEsam H FazeaIsiaka O. Olarinre- King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
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Combating heat stress (HS), increasing broiler productivity, and enhancing meat quality are the major priorities in hot climate areas. This study evaluated the effects of Fibrafid, a natural plant-derived product, compared to a commercial prebiotic (TURBO Grow), on meat quality, physicochemical characteristics, carcass features, jejunal histopathology, final average body weight (ABW), and feed conversion ratio (FCR) in heat-stressed broilers fed either a standard or reduced nutrient density diet (diet with a 5% drop in amino acid density and a 1.5% reduction in ME). A total of 576 Ross 308 broilers were allocated to eight treatments in a 2 × 4 factorial design, with two diet types (standard vs. reduced) and four additive treatments (none, Fibrafid 0.15%, Fibrafid 0.25%, and TURBO Grow 0.10%). Carcass yield, breast meat physicochemical traits, texture, and intestinal morphology were assessed at 35 days of age, as well as overall ABW and FCR. Two-way ANOVA revealed that diet and additive exerted significant main effects on several traits, with some diet × additive interactions. Fibrafid at 0.25% improved water-holding capacity, reduced cooking loss, and increased myofibrillar fragmentation index, while both Fibrafid levels revealed a better gut environment, indicating improved nutrition absorption compared with controls. TURBO Grow supplementation showed intermediate benefits. Carcass weight, carcass yield, and Warner–Bratzler shear force remained unaffected by diet or additives. Reduced diets did not impair breast yield when supplemented with Fibrafid. In conclusion, these results indicate that Fibrafid at 0.25% enhanced meat quality, breast yield, and intestinal integrity in heat-stressed broilers across both dietary regimens, supporting its potential as a functional feed additive under challenging production conditions.
Keywords: broilers meat quality, feed efficiency, Fibrafid, Heat stress, nutrientrequirements
Received: 22 Jul 2025; Accepted: 22 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Al-Garadi, Alhotan, Hussein, Qaid, Suliman, Al-Badwi, Fazea and Olarinre. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Maged Ahmed Al-Garadi, malgaradi@ksu.edu.sa
Mohammed M. Qaid, mqaid@ksu.edu.sa
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