Effect of Vitamin E and Selenium Supplementation on Growth Performance and Heat Shock Protein 70 Levels in Broiler Chickens Exposed to Summer Heat Stress

The effect of vitamin E and Selenium supplementation in diet of broiler chicken on growth performance and Heat shock protein70 (HSP70) level under summer heat stress was studied.

The current study was conducted on 240 day-old commercial broiler chicks, which were divided randomly into four treatment groups of 60 numbers, with three replicates of 20 in each group. The control (T₀) group was allotted with basal diet, group T₁ (basal diet + Vitamin E @ 100 mg/kg and Selenium @ 0.2 mg/kg), T₂ (basal diet + Vitamin E @ 125 mg/kg and Selenium @ 0.25 mg/kg) and T₃ (basal diet + Vitamin E @ 150 mg/kg and Selenium @ 0.3 mg/kg).

In the present study, it has been found that, vitamin E and selenium supplementation in the diet of heat stressed broilers influenced the body weight (P=0.002), Body weight gain (P=0.001), Feed Intake (P=0.311) and BPEI (P=0.013) but not the Feed conversion ratio. Dietary vitamin E and Selenium supplementation increased the dressing percentage (P<0.001), Breast meat yield percentage (P=0.004), Thigh yield percentage (P=0.018), Drum stick yield percentage (P=0.013) and decreased abdominal fat percentage (P=0.004) under heat stress. The Heat shock protein level was improved (P<0.001) by dietary supplementation of vitamin E and Selenium under heat stress. The study indicated that growth performance, carcass characteristics and HSP70 level could be improved by dietary vitamin E and selenium supplementation under heat stress.