Osama.M. El-Husseiny, N.E. Gohar, A. M. Atta,
I. M. Raslan
Department
of Animal Production, Faculty of Agriculture, Cairo University.
This study was
carried out to evaluate the influence of vitamins (Vit) E, E plus Selenium
(Se), C and A on the productive performance and immune responses of Arbor Acres
broiler chicks. A total of 675 Arbor Acres broiler chicks were divided randomly
at the first day of life, into 9 equal groups. The first group served as a
control and received an unsupplemented commercial diet, the other groups
received diet supplemented with either Vit E (60 or 120 mg), Vit E plus Se
(0.25 or 0.50 mg), Vit C (300 or 600 mg) or Vit A (18000 or 27000 I.U) per kg.
Supplementation with Vit C, significantly improved feed conversion, body weight
gain, 7 – week- body weight and increased the nitrogen retention, whereas Vit E
plus Se improved only feed conversion. On the other hand, all other
supplementations did not affect the digestion coefficients of nutrients except
vit E (120mg) + Se (.5mg) group which demonstrated lower level of ether extract
(EE). Furthermore, the control diet produced the lowest antibody titer against
Newcastle disease virus (NDV) (P ≤ 0.05). Conversely, Vit C supplemented diet
produced the highest antibody level. However other supplemention produced
similar anti-NDV antibody titer at 4, 5, 6 and 7 weeks of age. On the other
hand, neither antibody titer against sheep red blood cells nor cutaneous
basophil hypersensitivity was influenced by any supplementation. The results of
relative lymphoid organ weight at 21 days of age showed that chicks
supplemented with vitamin C (600mg) + A (18000 I.U); E (60mg) and, E (120mg) +
C (300mg) supplementation have the heaviest spleen, bursal and thymus weight
respectively. At 42 days of age, those supplemented with vit E (60mg) showed
the heaviest spleen weight, while the vitC (300mg) showed the heaviest bursal
and spleen weight.