Differences in muscle histidine‐containing dipeptides in broilers

BACKGROUND Poultry meat has high levels of histidine‐containing dipeptides (HCD) and consumption of meat rich in HCD may elicit certain health benefits. The aim of this work was to compare the HCD content (anserine and carnosine) in the breast and thigh muscles of two broiler strains differing in growth rate, feeding regime, and age at slaughter. A 3 (production system) × 2 (sex) × 2 (age at slaughter) full factorial arrangement was applied with fast‐growing Ross 308 chicks fed ad libitum (ROSS‐AL), slow‐growing Sasso T451 chicks fed ad libitum (SASSO‐AL), and Ross 308 chicks given limited feeding (ROSS‐LIM). At the age of 40 and 62 days, eight birds per production system × sex combination were randomly selected for sampling of the breast and thigh muscle. Muscle HCD content was determined by high‐performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). RESULTS Across treatments, levels of anserine were 2.5‐ and 1.9‐fold higher than carnosine in breast and thigh muscle respectively (P