Effect of Vitamin-C Supplementation on Growth Performance of Broiler Chicken under Heat Stress Condition

Abstract

An experiment was conducted to investigate the effect of vitamin-C supplementation on growth performance of broiler chicken under heat stress condition. A total of 180 day-old broiler chicks (Vencobb) were divided into three groups with three replications each comprising of 20 birds and reared on deep litter system. Birds in each group were fed broiler diet ad libitum and supplemented with Vitamin-C dissolved in drinking water at a dose of 0, 30 and 50 mg/bird/day for groups T₁, T₂ and T₃; respectively. The average maximum temperature was 35.3^oC and minimum temperature was 25.5^oC during the experimental period of six weeks with overall average temperature of 33.2^oC and 26.1^oC, respectively. Similarly, the relative humidity varied between 57.3 to 90.8 per cent during the experimental period with overall average maximum and minimum relative humidity of 83.4 and 73.1 per cent, respectively. The results of weekly body weight gain revealed that the group supplemented with vitamin-C (T₂ and T₃) recorded significantly higher body weight gains over control. The body weight gain of the birds improved with higher dose of vitamin-C. Vitamin-C supplementation did not significantly (P<0.01) increase feed intake and feed conversion ratio among the groups during first week. However, from 2^nd week onwards birds in group T₂ showed higher trend in feed consumption and feed conversion ratio as compared to other groups.

Key words: Vitamin-C, broiler, growth performance, feed intake, feed conversion ratio