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

An experiment utilizing Cobb-500 male broilers was conducted to evaluate th e effects of vitamin E supplementation at various concentrations on malonyl dialdehyde (MDA) as an indicator of lipid peroxidation, serum and liver con centrations of antioxidant vitamins and some minerals of broilers reared un der heat stress (32 degreesC). One day-old 150 male broilers were randomly assigned to 5 treatment groups, 3 replicates of 10 birds each. The birds re ceived either a basal diet or basal diet supplemented with vitamin E (dl-al pha -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 decre ased (P = 0.001) MDA concentrations. Increasing dietary vitamin E supplemen tation also resulted in linear increases in liver vitamin E and A concentra tions, but linear decreases in MDA concentrations (P = 0.01). Increasing di etary 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). Re sults of the present study conclude that in broiler chicks reared under hea t stress a 250 mg of vitamin E supplementation can be considered as a prote ctive management practice in a broiler diet, reducing the negative effects of beat stress.