The effect of dietary vitamin E and coenzyme Q10 supplementations on performance and ascites parameters in broiler under cold stress

This experiment was performed to determine the role of vitamin E and coenzyme Q10 antioxidants on performance and ascites parameters of broiler chicks in cold stress conditions using a completely randomized design with 5 treatments and 5 replicates in each treatment. Treatments were: positive control (PC, normal thermal conditions without antioxidants), negative control (NC, cold stress without antioxidants), NC + vitamin E (150 mg/kg diet), NC + Q10 (40 mg/kg diet) and NC + E (150 mg/kg diet) + Q10 (40 mg/kg diet). Temperature decreased gradually between days 15 to 21 and fixed at 15oC afterwards. Result showed that there were significant differences between treatments in body weight gain (BWG) and feed conversion ratio (FCR) (p<0.05). The NC group had the lowest BWG and the highest FCR amongst the dietary treatments but there were no significant difference between positive control and antioxidant group for this trait. In spite of a higher amount of FI for the negative control, there were no significant differences in FI between the treatments. Ascites indicators such as heart weight, RV/TV ratio, red blood cell count, hematocrit, and T3/T4 ratio were significantly increased in the negative control (p<0.05). Antioxidants in stressful conditions improved these parameters. Beside of an increase in liver weight and T3 were observed in the negative control but the differences were not significant (p<0.05). In general, the use of vitamin E and coenzyme Q10 antioxidants led to improvement in performance and ascites index in broiler chicken exposed to cold stress.