Abstract

This study was conducted to determine the effect of dietary Selenium (Se) supplementation on growth performance, carcass Se retention and meat lipid peroxidation in commercial broiler chickens.A total of 216 1-day-old male Cobb broiler chicks were randomly divided into 6 groups of 36 chicks each (6 chicks × 6 replications) and assigned to one of the following treatments: (1) a conventional diet as a control (C), (2) C diet supplemented with increasing concentrations (1,2,3,4 or 6mg/kg diet) of organic Se (D1, D2, D3, D4 and D5).Se-supplemented diets were only fed during the grower-finisher phase (d15-d42). Body weight gain, feed intake and feed conversion ratio were not affected by Se supplementation either during the grower-finisher phase or during the overall rearing period. Se concentration among 42-d-old chickens’ carcasses increased significantly and linearly from 0.11 (C) to 1.44 (D5)mg/kg live body weight. The amounts of ingested, retained and excreted Se also increased significantly and linearly with dietary Se supplementation level.Se retention efficiency was low ranging from 10.5% (D4) to 20.6% (D2). No difference was detected between dietary treatments with respect to lipid peroxidation after a 7-day storage period either in the pectoralis or thigh muscle. These results indicate that dietary supplementation with organic Se did not influence growth performance nor lipid peroxidation status.However, it increased the Se content of broiler chickens’ carcasses. Thus, this approach could be used to produce Se-enriched meat in order to improve the Se status of consumers

Keywords: Broiler chicken; Carcass; Feed supplementation; Growth performance; Lipid peroxidation; Organic selenium