The role of adding sodium chloride in broiler chicks diets to improve production performance and antioxidant status during heat stress

Abstract

This study was conducted at the Poultry Research Station in the Livestock Research Department / Agricultural Research office / Ministry of Agriculture, where a 84 sexed chicks that brought from a local hatchery (AL-Shuker) in Abu Ghraib were used at one day old with initial weight of 40g of the breed (Ross 308). The continuous light method (24 hours/day) and the gas incubators were used to warm the hall in order to reach the required temperature of 38℃ until the end of the experiment at 42 days. The chicks were randomly distributed on 2 treatments, where each treatment included three replicates of (14 chicks / rep), the first one was the control treatment, and in the second treatment the chicks were given sodium chloride by 250 mg/kg feed. The findings of this study showed a significant superiority (P <0.05) for sodium chloride treatment over the control treatment in each of life body weight, weight gain, feed consumption, and a significant decreased in the mortality percentage compared to the control treatment. Furthermore, it can be noted from the lipid peroxidation measurements in broiler chicks, the NaCl's treatment was significantly decreased (P <0.05) in the maldehytomdialdehyde level, peroxide value, and free fatty acid percentage compared with the control. Finally, there were no significant differences between control treatment and sodium chloride treatment in enzyme activity of transaminases (Aspartate aminotransferase AST and Alanine aminotransferase ALT).