Protective role of supplemental vitamin E on lipid peroxidation, vitamins E, A and some mineral concentrations of broilers reared under heat stress

Abstract

An experiment utilizing Cobb-500 male broilers was conducted to evaluate the effects of vitamin E supplementation at various concentrations on malonyldialdehyde (MDA) as an indicator of lipid peroxidation, serum and liver concentrations of antioxidant vitamins and some minerals of broilers reared under heat stress (32°C). One day-old 150 male broilers were randomly assigned to 5 treatment groups, 3 replicates of 10 birds each. The birds received either a basal diet or basal diet supplemented with vitamin E (dl-a-tocopherol acetate) at 62.5, 125, 250, or 500 mg/kg of diet. Increased supplemental vitamin E linearly increased serum vitamin E and A, but decreased (P = 0.001) MDA concentrations. Increasing dietary vitamin E supplementation also resulted in linear increases in liver vitamin E and A concentrations, but linear decreases in MDA concentrations (P = 0.01). Increasing dietary vitamin E caused a linear increase in serum concentrations of Fe and Zn (P= 0.001), but a decrease in serum concentration of Cu (P = 0.001). Results of the present study conclude that in broiler chicks reared under heat stress a 250 mg of vitamin E supplementation can be considered as a protective management practice in a broiler diet, reducing the negative effects of heat stress.