CHANGES IN THE lEVELS OF CERTAIN MICROELEMENTS IN THE BLOOD OF BROILERS WITH MUSCULAR DISTRICT

K. Stoyanchev

Abstract: The purpose of the present study was to investigate the alterations in blood plasma concentrations of trace elements Se, Cu and Zn in broiler chickens with experimentally reproduced of muscular dystrophy. The experiments were conducted with 1 day-old Cobb 500 broiler chickens. By the 3rd day of life, they were divided into 60 experimental and 20 control birds; the latter were fed a standard compound feed, whereas the former group received a diet deficient in sulfur-containing amino acids methionine and cysteine (reduced up to 50%), vitamin E, and Se (from 0.2 mg/kg in standard feed to 0.01 mg/kg), further supplemented with 4% oxidized fat containing peroxides and aldehydes with peroxide number of the food 8 meq O2/kg. The clinical signs of experimental muscle dystrophy in broiler chickens appeared first by the 19th day of feeding, when the severe clinical form was established and by the 21th and 25th day in the severe and the mild clinical form. In all groups,blood was sampled from the wing vein after manifestation of the disease by the19th, 21th and 25th day and after the treatment with Seled at a dose of 0.06 mg/kg per os by the 27th and 31th day. Results showed that broiler chickens with muscular dystrophy decreased concentrations of blood plasma trace elements Se, Cu and Zn. The 7-day treatment with Seled at a dose of 0.06 mg/kg per os for compensation of Se deficiency and replacement of the deficient compound feed with a regular one contributed to recovery of birds by the 27st and 31st and returned to normal concentrations of studied parameters, whereas concentrations of studied parameters of birds affected by the severe clinical form could not returned.

Keywords: broiler chickens; deficient feed; muscular dystrophy; oxidised fat; trace elements Se, Cu and Zn

Date published: 2017-11-10