Testosterone hormone levels and breast muscle performance of Pelung chickens after zinc sulfate and synthetic testosterone supplementation.

Background And Aim: Pelung chicken (Linnaeus, 1758) is a chicken endemic to Cianjur, West Java, Indonesia. This study aimed to determine the effects of zinc sulfate (ZnSO) and synthetic testosterone supplementations for 56 days on testosterone hormone levels and breast muscle performance in Pelung chickens.

Materials And Methods: This study used 12 Pelung chickens with three treatment groups (G) and four replications, namely, control (G0), ZnSO 0.9 mg/kg (G1), and synthetic testosterone 3 mg/day (G2). Chickens were acclimatized for 7 days and then supplemented for 56 days. Drinking water and commercial standard feed were provided ad libitum. Blood was collected through the brachial vein for the analysis of testosterone levels using the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. The samples were collected every 14 days; on days 0, 14, 28, 42, and 56. Breast muscles were collected for texture analysis, and breast muscle preparations were made with hematoxylin-eosin staining to measure the fascicle area (FA), number of myofibers in one fascicle (NMOF), and myofiber area (MA). The collected data were analyzed using analysis of variance at a 95% confidence level with the help of Statistical Package for the Social Sciences v.29.0. Furthermore, principal component analysis (PCA) was performed with the help of Minitab v. 19.

Results: Statistical analysis results on 56 days of testosterone level parameters showed that G2 was significantly different from all treatments (p < 0.05). The results of statistical analysis on Pelung chicken breast muscle performance, especially hardness, chewiness, FA, NMOF, and MA, were significantly different (p < 0.05) compared with the other treatments. The results of PCA showed that the testosterone level parameters were positively correlated with FA, NMOF, MA, hardness, and chewiness, whereas the fracture parameters were negatively correlated with all parameters except the springiness index and were significantly different between the G2 group and the other groups (p < 0.05).

Conclusion: It can be concluded that supplementing synthetic testosterone 3 mg/day body weight for 56 days can improve testosterone levels and breast muscle performance, especially hardness, chewiness, FA, NMOF, and MA in Pelung chickens.