Effect of supplementing selenized yeast on performance and anti-oxidant responses in Vanaraja and commercial broiler chickens
 

The study was conducted to determine the efficacy of organic Se produced through Saccharomyces cerevisiae from sodium selenite in the diet of Vanaraja and commercial broiler chicken. The trial was conducted in day-old Vanaraja chicks (n=160), which were randomly distributed into 4 dietary groups having 5 chicks in each of 8 replicates. The basal diet (BD) was formulated and supplemented with calculated quantity of organic Se to formulate the different experimental diets and fed up to 5 weeks. The second experiment in day-old commercial broiler chicks (n=350), which were randomly distributed into 7 dietary groups having 5 chicks in each of 10 replicates.  The experimental birds were fed BD (diet I) with 0.2 mg/kg organic Se (diet II), 0.4 mg/kg organic Se (diet III) and 0.6 mg/kg organic Se (diet IV), and BD with 0.2 mg/kg inorganic Se (diet V), 0.4 mg/kg inorganic Se (diet VI) and 0.6 mg/kg inorganic Se (diet VII) up to 6 weeks.  The body weight gain during 5th week was higher (P<0.05) in the birds fed with diet supplemented 0.3 mg/kg of the organic Se compared to the other groups. However, feed intake and feed conversion ratio (FCR) among different groups did not vary (P>0.05) throughout the experiment. The activity of glutathione peroxidase was higher (P<0.01) among the groups fed the diets containing organic Se (0.2, 0.3 and 0.4 mg/kg) compared to the control diet in experiment I. In experiment II, body weight gain and FCR at the end of the experiment were improved significantly (P<0.01) in the group fed 0.2 mg/kg organic Se compared to control. Alanine transaminase, Aspartate aminotransferase, triglycerides and cholesterol levels were lower in groups fed diets supplemented organic Se compared to control or inorganic Se fed groups. Whereas, glutathione reductase activity was significantly higher among the groups supplemented organic Se compared to other dietary groups. Based on the results it can be concluded that supplementing organic Se up to 0.3 mg/kg enhanced the body weight gain and anti-oxidant enzyme activity in Vanaraja and commercial broiler chicken.