Effect of Chromium Picolinate, Alone or in Combination with Vitamin C or Formic Acid on Growth, Carcass Traits, Immune and Blood Parameters of Broilers under Heat Stress
Effect of Chromium Picolinate, Alone or in Combination with Vitamin C or Formic Acid on Growth, Carcass Traits, Immune and Blood Parameters of Broilers under Heat Stress
Faramin Javandel Soum Sarai1, Mir Daryoush Shakouri2* and Alireza Seidavi3*
ABSTRACT
The experiment was performed to evaluate the effect of chromium picolinate, alone or in combinationwith vitamin C or formic acid on performance, carcass traits and some blood biochemical and hematological parameters of broilers under heat stress (34 ˚C for 8 h). A total of 160 28-d-old Ross 308 broiler chickens were divided into 4 treatment groups with 4 replicates and 10 birds per each by employing a completely randomized design. Broilers were fed on corn-soybean meal basal diets with no additive (control) or added chromium picolinate (400 mg/kg), chromium picolinate (400 mg/kg)+ vitamin C (240 mg/kg) or chromium picolinate (400 mg/kg) +formic acid (0.5%) form 29 to 42 days of age. All supplements significantly improved daily feed intake, daily weight gain and feed conversion ratio of birds compared with the control (P<0.05). The treatments reduced the abdominal fat (P<0.05) and had no effect on the other carcass traits. Relative weight of immune organs was significantly increased by the dietary treatments (P<0.05). The supplements caused a significant increase in total protein and a decrease in glucose, total cholesterol, and LDL cholesterol concentrations (P<0.05). All supplements significantly decrease mean corpuscular volume (MCV), percentage of heterophils and the ratio of heterophil to lymphocyte (H/L), and increased mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration (MCHC) and white blood cells (WBC) (P<0.05). Addition of formic acid lowered the effect of chromium picolinate on performance parameters, abdominal fat and spleen weights (P<0.05). The results suggest that supplemental chromium picolinate alleviate the adverse effects of heat stress. No synergistic effect was observed between vitamin C or formic acid with chromium picolinate, and in some cases formic acid exacerbated the effect of chromium picolinate.
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