The effects of different levels of vitamin-E and organic selenium on performance and immune response of laying hens

Abstract

The aim of this study was to determine the effects of different vitamin-E and organic selenium (selenomethionine) levels on performance and immune response of laying hens. A total of 270 laying hens (65-weeks old Lohman-LSL Lite) were assigned to nine experimental diets consisting of nine replicates (cage) and six hens per cage. A 3×3 factorial arrangement including three levels of vitamin E (0, 125 and 250 mg/kg diet from α-tocopherol acetate) and three levels selenium (0.0, 0.50 and 0.75 mg/kg diet from selenomethionine) was employed for six weeks trial period. The hens performance including hen-day egg production%, feed intake, egg mass (g/hen/day) and feed conversion ratio (FCR, g feed: g egg) were measured. Antibody production against sheep red blood cells (SRBC) also was measured. The general linear model procedure of SAS software was used for data analysis and differences among treatment means was determined using the Duncan’s multiple-range test. The results show that the inclusion of vitamin E and selenium had a significant effect on production performance of laying hens (P<0.05). In addition, vitamin E and selenium supplements improved immune response of laying hens and a more positive effect was observed when 0.75 mg/kg selenium and 250 mg/kg vitamin E was added to the diet. From the results of the present study, it could be concluded that utilization of organic selenium plus vitamin E in diets was effective for improving the performance and immune system of laying hens. Keywords: Vitamin-E, selenomethionine, laying hen, performance, immune system. <br African Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 12(24), pp. 3884-3890