The synergistic effect of the vitamin C and vitamin E on the transportation stress response of broiler chickens

The mortality of broiler chicken during transportation caused losses to the farmers. Administration of antioxidant, such as vitamin C and vitamin E able to reduce the mortality rate, and thus generates a better profit. Seventy two commercial broiler chickens were used as subjects to study the synergistic effect of vitamin C and vitamin E on transportation stress response of broiler chickens. The broiler chickens were experienced 3 hours of transportation period, while broiler chickens that experienced zero hour of transportation period were act as control in the study. Four treatments were studied, where, (1) without administration of vitamin (2) administration of 60 mg/kg of vitamin C (3) administration of 30 mg/kg of vitamin E (4) administration of 60 mg/kg of vitamin C and 30 mg/kg of vitamin E. Heterophil/lymphocyte (H/L) ratio and chicken's body temperature were measured as the stress indicator. The results supported the presence of synergistic effect of vitamin C and vitamin E, 0.72±0.06 significantly reduces the transportation stress response of broiler chicken in terms of H/L ratio when compares to the treatment with administration of vitamin C, 1.14±0.08, with vitamin E, 1.51±0.11, and without administration of vitamin, 1.61±0.11. While results of body temperature showed no significant among treatments and hour of transportation. This could possibly due to environmental factors such as weather affecting the ambient temperature. The application of this study into the broiler industry requires further study and analysis for the feasibility and cost efficiency of application.