Modulation of Cholesterol and Copper Residue Levels in Muscles and Blood Serum of Finishing Broiler Chickens Fed Copper and Ascorbic Acid Supplements

Abstract

To study the effect of Copper (Cu) and ascorbic acid supplements on modulation of cholesterol and copper residue content of chicken muscles and blood serum, two hundred and forty finishing Anak broiler chickens of mixed sexes were randomly allotted to four dietary treatment groups with four replication of fifteen birds each. The feeding period was 5 weeks. The response to copper and ascorbic acid were such that dietary supplementation with 250 ppm Cu alone resulted in 30 and 19% reduction in pectoralis major and biceps femoris muscles cholesterol respectively. Supplementation with 250 ppm Cu + 100 ppm Ascorbic acid resulted in 29 and 12% reduction in muscles cholesterol while inclusion of 100 ppm ascorbic acid alone brought about 4 and 10% reduction in the two muscles respectively. Serum cholesterol reduced by 28% and the addition 100 ppm ascorbic acid reduced this to 26%. Ascorbic acid (100 ppm) exerted 12% reduction in serum cholesterol. Ascorbic lowered the hypocholesterolemic potency of copper by about 1-7%. Combination of 100 ppm ascorbic and 250 ppm Cu slowed down rate of weight gain by 11% when compared with 250 ppm Cu alone as supplement, Supplementation with 100 ppm ascorbic alone improved carcass yield by 4% compared to 250 ppm Cu. Metalloprotein enzyme (AST and ALP) activities were significantly increased with supplementation. Cu residue was more in biceps femoris than pectoralis major muscle. Above 30% reduction in Cu residue was noticed with addition of ascorbic acid.