The effect of the in ovo injection of some carbohydrates and antioxidants on incubating parameters, blood and immunological parameters, intestinal morphometry and post-hatching production performance in broiler chickens

Abstract

This experiment was performed to evaluate the effect of the in ovo injection of carbohydrates, antioxidants, and their combination into the stored incubating eggs. To conduct this research, 600 hatching eggs were selected for amniotic injection (on 17.5th embryonic day) from the laying hens of Cobb 500 strain after 14 days of storage, and after hatching, they were distributed for a rearing period in 5 treatments and 5 replicates in a completely randomised design(24 eggs per replicate). Experimental treatments include: (1) Negative control (NC) (without injection), (2) Positive control (PC) (injection of 0.5 ml normal saline solution), (3) Injection of 0.5 ml carbohydrates solution (CS), (4) Injection of 0.5 ml antioxidant solution (AS) and (5) Injection of 0.5 ml (CS) + (AS). The hatching percentage, chicken weight, the number of red cells, lymphocytes and tissue glycogen content in CS + AS treatment increased significantly compared to the control (p<.05). All experimental treatments had a significant improvement compared to the control in terms of the physical quality of chickens and the performance in the entire rearing period (p<.05). Antioxidant activity of the liver tissue for the treatments injected with antioxidants had the most significant difference in comparison with the control (p<.05). The results show that the CS + AS injection leads to a higher improvement of incubation and growth performance by preventing the reduction of glycogen stores, as well as increasing the antioxidant capacity and protection of unsaturated lipids against the stress in hatching period in the stored fertile eggs. Highlights Increased egg storage time have detrimental effects on embryonic development and hatching rate. The in ovo injection of carbohydrates by improving glycogen stores in stored fertile eggs is effective in improving performance. The in ovo injection of antioxidants have positive effects on antioxidant activity of broilers.