Pastured Poultry

A growing consciousness of the nutritional importance of human diets for health has led to an increased interest of consumers in specialty poultry products. Pasture consumption, through outdoor access, is implicit in alternative production systems (free-range and organic). However, its importance to broiler performance and poultry meat quality is still not well established. In addition, enzyme supplementation of broiler diets is a common practice in conventional poultry production systems. Although, its impact on broiler performance in free-range systems remains largely unknown. This book contributes to improve our current knowledge on both these issues. The influence of the pasture intake on poultry meat quality was investigated, giving special attention to the meat lipid fraction. In addition, factors affecting the effectiveness of exogenous cellulases and hemicellulases used to supplement pastured poultry diets are investigated. These novel insights concerning the importance of pasture and exogenous enzymes in free-range poultry production systems should be especially useful to students, teachers and professionals in the animal production field.