Supplementation of inorganic and organic selenium on antioxidant, immunity status and bioavailability in broiler breeder hen

Mohanty, P.P., Panda, N., Swain, R.K., Behura, N.C., Panigrahi, B. and Ray, P. 2020. Supplementation of inorganic and organic selenium on antioxidant, immunity status and bioavailability in broiler breeder hen. Animal Nutrition and Feed Technology, 20: 441–451.

The experiment was conducted to ascertain the effect of supplementation of inorganic and/or organic selenium on the antioxidant and immunity status of coloured broiler breeder hens. Forty week-old coloured broiler breeder hens (n=144) were randomly distributed into six treatment groups each with three replicates having eight chicks per replicate. The dietary treatments included the feeding of the basal diet alone (CON) and with supplementation of Se either in inorganic (sodium selenite) form at 0.3 (SSL) and 0.6 ppm (SS-H) or in organic (selenium yeast) form at 0.3 ppm (SY-L) and 0.6 ppm (SY-H) levels or a combination of 0.3 ppm each of inorganic and organic forms (SS-SY). The supplementation was continued for 12 weeks. The results indicated a higher glutathione peroxides activities in all the selenium supplemented groups but higher superoxide dismutase was seen in SY-L, SY-H and SS-SY groups but no effect was seen in catalase activity of the birds. In 46^th and 52^nd week, there was significantly lower MDA in all the selenium supplemented groups. Significantly higher cutaneous basophilic hypersensitivity response was seen in all the selenium supplemented groups, whereas organic as well as combination groups showed a higher response than inorganic groups. The HI titre against sheep RBC was significantly higher in SS-H, SY-H and mixed supplemented groups. Higher egg selenium content was observed in SY-H and SS-SY than other groups. It is concluded that supplementation of a combination of inorganic and organic selenium at equal proportion improved the antioxidant status, immune response in broiler breeder hens.