Effect of Combined Supplementation Catechin and Vitamin C on Growth Performance, Meat Quality, Blood Composition and Stress Responses of Broilers under High Temperature

The study was carried out to investigate the effects of dietary combined supplementation of antioxidants as catechin and vitamin C on growth performance, meat quality, blood profiles and stress responses of broilers exposed to high temperature. For this experiment, a total of 360 21-day-old male Ross 308 broilers were used. Treatments were assigned with 6 replicates per treatment and 10 birds per replicate in a 2 × 3 factorial design with vitamin C (0, 250 mg/kg) and catechin (0, 600, 1,200 mg/kg). The heat stress environment was maintained at temperature 32±1 ℃ and relative humidity 60±5% for 24 hours until the end of the experiment. The supplemented antioxidants had no significant difference in weight gain, feed intake and feed conversion ratio ( P >0.05). The content of total cholesterol in blood had no interaction, but decrease ( P <0.01) in the supplemented catechin group. Also, the supplementation with catechin showed increase in the SOD activity of blood, and lower corticosterone and IgM levels of broilers. The contents of HSP70 and MDA in liver decrease ( P <0.05) with the supplementation of antioxidants, and HSP70 showed an interaction between groups. DPPH radical scavenging ability in breast meat increased ( P <0.01) in catechin, but meat quality did not show difference according to treatments. Respiratory rate decreased ( P <0.05) in catechin, but no interaction with vitamin C. In conclusion, the combination of vitamin C and catechin can alleviate stress under high temperature, such as HSP70 and MDA, but further study on the optimal supplemental level is needed.