Effects of Caponization on Growth, Meat Production, Certain Phenotypic Trait, and Hematobiochemical Indices in Narragansett Turkey Toms

Turkey meat is popular for its taste, quality, and festive stuffing. The turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) males, i.e., toms are often considered a good source of meat and caponized toms (capons) might be a superior choice in this context. This study was conducted to determine the effects of caponization on growth, carcass yield, certain blood parameters, serum enzymes, and electrolyte levels in toms. Thirty-six apparently healthy Narragansett turkey toms were randomly selected and equally distributed into group I (control, n = 18) and group II (study, n = 18). The group II birds were caponized at the age of 10 weeks. In both groups, daily feed intake, live weight, daily weight gain, feed conversion ratio (FCR), and snood length were recorded at 10, 11, 12, 13, and 14 weeks along with evaluation of certain hematological and biochemical parameters including assessment of some serum electrolytes. All birds in both groups were sacrificed by slaughtering at the age of 14 weeks, and thereafter the weights of internal organs, i.e., liver, heart, spleen, and kidney were recorded. In capons, significant (p 0.05) increases in mean daily feed intake, live weight, and daily weight gain were noted with an improved FCR, along with a significant (p 0.05) decrease in snood length. In addition, the capons were found to have significantly (p 0.05) higher total erythrocyte count, packed cell volume, aspartate transaminase, alanine transaminase, creatinine, sodium, potassium, and chloride in different phases of the experiment. Besides these, non-significant changes were observed in differential leukocyte count, erythrocyte sedimentation rate, and hemoglobin concentration between the groups throughout the experiment. After slaughter, postmortem disclosed significantly (p 0.05) heavier liver, spleen, and kidney in the caponized toms than those in the contemporaries. The findings of this study revealed that caponization of the turkeys notably contributed to performance for meat production influencing certain hematobiochemical indices and serum electrolytes.