Effect of Herbal Antioxidants Supplementation on Broiler Performance under Oxidative Stress

The effect of herbal atioxidants i.e Asparagus recemosus, Andrographis paniculata, Gymnema sylvestre, Allium sativum and Spirulina platensis on growth performance of broilers under oxidative stress was studied. Day old Cob broiler chicks (n=105) were randomly alloted in seven groups with three replicates of 5 each. Fed basal diet for 1–42 days to broiler chicks of T1, basal diet with 100 ppm of cadmium upto 28th day to T2-T7 chicks. From 29th day to 42nd day, the T2 chicks were fed only basal diet which was cadmium toxic control; T3 chicks were fed basal diet mixed with 0.1% of root powder of A. recemosus; T4 were fed with basal diet mixed with 0.1% A. paniculata, T5 were fed with basal diet having 0.1% G. sylvestre; T6 chicks were fed with basal diet mixed with 0.1% A. sativum and T7 with basal diet mixed with 0.1% S. platensis. Broiler chicken treated with 100 ppm cadmium from 1–28 days (T2-T7) showed significant (P<0.05) increase in superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase (CAT) activity in erythrocytes and alanine transaminase (ALT) activity in serum, body wt gain, feed consumption and feed conversion efficiency decreased at the end of 4th week. From 29th to 42nd day chickens fed only basal diet (T2) showed decrease (P<0.05) in reduced glutathione (GSH) and increase in thiobabituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) levels of liver and decreased body weight gain and feed conversion efficiency as compared to T1. Treatments from T3 to T7 showed significant (P<0.05) improvement in body weight gain, feed consumption and reduced feed conversion ratio. It may be concluded that supplementation of herbal antioxidants along with feed, may be effectively suppress ROS production and increase production performance under various stressful conditions.