Dietary inclusion of chromium to improve growth performance and immune-competence of broilers under heat stress

• Main Authors: Tagwa M. Norain, Izzeldin B. Ismail, Khalid A. Abdoun, Ahmed A. Al-Haidary
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Taylor & Francis Group 2013-11-01
• Series: Italian Journal of Animal Science
• Subjects: Broilers, Chromium, Growth performance, Heat stress, Immune response.
• Online Access: http://www.aspajournal.it/index.php/ijas/article/view/3004
• ISSN: 1594-4077; 1828-051X

<p>This study was conducted to investigate the effects of dietary supplementation with chromium chloride, CrCl₃.6H₂O (2mg kg^–1basal diet) on the performance and immune response of broiler chickens under heat stress condition (25-43°C). A total of 80 one-day-old broiler chicks (Ross-308) were assigned to two treatment groups according to a completely randomized design. Each treatment consisted of four equal replicates, each contained ten chicks. Chicks were fed on basal diets supplemented with different concentrations of chromium (0 and 2 mg kg^–1CrCl₃) from 1 to 35 days of age. Chromium supplementation as feed additives resulted in a slightly lower rectal temperature, and significantly (P&lt;0.05) lower respiration rate for the broiler chickens received diet supplemented with chromium compared to the control (0 mg kg^–1 CrCl₃). Dietary chromium supplementation increased final body weight (BW) at the end of the production period (5 weeks). Average weight gain was significantly (P&lt;0.05) higher in chickens fed on chromium supplemented diet. Feed intake was not influenced by dietary chromium supplementation, however, the efficiency of feed conversion was improved (P&lt;0.05) in chromium supplemented chickens. Furthermore, dressing percentage was significantly (P&lt;0.05) higher in Cr-treated chickens compared to control chickens. Chromium supplementation significantly (P&lt;0.05) improved the immune response to Newcastle Disease Virus vaccine (NDV). The present results suggest that dietary chromium supplementation provides a good nutritional management approach to ameliorate heat stress induced depression in production performance and immune response of broiler chickens. </p>