摘要
An increasing number of consumers demanding health foods have favoured poultry meat from natural production system. Amino acid and mineral elements are essential nutrient, required for numerous metabolic functions, which are provided partly by the poultry. The objective of this study was to evaluate amino acid and mineral composition in meat of free-range broilers fed on grasshoppers on alpine rangeland in the Tibetan Plateau. Eighty, 28-day-old Qinjiaoma male broilers were introduced into a rangeland where there was a dense population of grasshoppers （treatment GC）. Control chicken were reared under intensive condition and given a maize-soybean diet （treatment CC）. At 91 days of age, 24 birds from each treatment were slaughtered. Fresh breast meats were packaged and refrigerated for determination. The results indicated that dietary grasshoppers and rearing condition significantly （P 〈 0.05） affected some amino acid and mineral elements composition. Aspartic, arginine, threonine, isoleucine and lysine were higher in the muscles from GC than those from CC, and the similar trend were also found in the content of total amino acid and essential amino acid. While tryptophan and methionine were lower （P 〈 0.05） in meat from GC than that from CC. Effect of diets and rearing condition on mineral elements was also observed, the concentration of sodium, phosphorus and iron were higher （P 〈 0.05） in muscle from GC, while calcium was higher in muscle from CC. In conclusion, the meat in free-range broilers fed on grasshoppers has the richer amino acid and mineral elements.
