The best relationship for vitamin E:vitamin C in diets for broilers regarding growth performance and meat quality of birds submitted to pre-slaughter stress was determined. 800 male chicks at one day of age were distributed in a completely randomized design in a 2x4 factorial scheme, with two levels of vitamin E supplementation - 0 and 250mg/kg - and four of vitamin C - 0, 150, 300 and 450mg/kg. At 42 days of age, 12 hours ante-mortem, samples of birds from each treatment were submitted to heat stress and then transportation. The performance characteristics evaluated were body weight, feed intake and feed:gain ratio, carcass yield and meat quality of breast and thighs, water loss, color and pH. The levels of vitamins evaluated did not influence the performance characteristics measured. There was a lower breast yield (34.2 vs 34.9%) and higher initial pH (6.3 vs 6.1) in the cuts for birds that suffered stress than for those who did not undergo pre-slaughter stress.
broiler chickens; carcass yield; heat stress; performance; water loss
