Effect of Supplementing Alfalfa Powder to Diet on Growth Performance and Meat Quality of Goose

The experiment was aimed to investigate the effects of dietary alfalfa powder on the growth performance,body size,slaughter performance,organ index and meat quality of Siji geese.A total of 256 15-day-old geese (half male and half female) with similar body weight were randomly divided into four groups with 4 replicates of 16 geese each.The geese in control group were fed with corn-soybean meal-based diet (control diet),and geese in the experimental groups were fed the basal diet replaced with 10%,20% and 30% alfalfa powder,respectively.The results showed that,compared with the control group,dietary alfalfa powder supplementation had no significant effect on the average daily intake,average daily gain,feed conversion ratio,body oblique length,keel length,shin circumference,semi diving length,chest width and shin length (P>0.05),and also had no effect on the carcass ratio,half-eviscerated carcass ratio and pectoral muscle ratio (P>0.05).However,dietary 20% and 30% alfalfa powder supplementation significantly increased the chest depth (P<0.05),dietary 30% alfalfa powder significantly decreased the full-eviscerated carcass ratio (P<0.05),and dietary 10% alfalfa powder significantly increased the leg muscle ratio (P<0.05) of geese.In addition,dietary alfalfa powder significantly decreased the abdominal fat ratio (P<0.05),raised the growth index of liver,jejunum,ileum,and cecum (P<0.05),and increased the water loss rate of pectoral muscle and leg muscle (P<0.05) compared with the control group.Dietary 10% and 30% alfalfa powder significantly increased duodenal growth index (P<0.05) of geese.In conclusion,dietary alfalfa powder supplementation might improve the slaughter performance (increase chest depth and leg muscle ratio,reduce abdominal fat rate) and organ growth index (increase the growth index of liver,duodenum,jejunum,ileum and cecum).However,dietary alfalfa powder increased water loss rates in pectoral muscle and leg muscle,and 30% alfalfa powder reduced the full-eviscerated carcass ratio of geese.The appropriate supplementation level of alfalfa powder was recommended at 10% in the present study.