The Influence of Vitamins E, A, C and Selenium on The Productive Performance and Immune Response of Arbor Acres Broiler Chicks

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.