EFFECTS OF ARGININE AND VITAMIN E SUPPLEMENTED DIETS ON THE IMMUNOLOGICAL RESPONSE OF BROILERS CHICKENS

Abstract

In order to evaluate the effect of arginine and vitamin E supplementation in broiler chicken diets on the immune response during post-vaccine stress, a trial was conducted with 700 chicks (1 day-old) which were distributed into 28 floor-pens and fed one of four dietary treatments (with 7 replicates) assigned randomly: T1 = control diet (1.31 % of arginine and 10 IU of vitamin E/kg of feed); T2 = T1 + 0.3 % of arginine; T3 = T1 + 70 IU of vitamin E; T4 = T1 + 0.3 % of arginine + 70 IU of vitamin E. At day 12 all birds were vaccinated against Newcastle disease virus (NDV), infectious bronchitis, avian influenza (AI) and fowl pox. The traits evaluated were: post-vaccine reaction at days 14, 16, 18, 21 and 23; antibody titers against NDV and AI, and relative lymphoid organs weight at days 11, 19 and 26; and the performance were recorded weekly. Chickens fed T2, T4 (at day 16), and T3 (at day 21) had lesser (p≤0.05) post-vaccine reaction than birds fed T1. The antibody titers against NDV (at day 11) was higher (p≤0.05) in chickens fed T4 (3.1 log2), T3 (2.7 log2) and T2 (2.7 log2) compared to T1 (1.6 log2); meanwhile, for AI titers no differences were found. There were no differences, neither for relative immune organs weight, nor for performance. In conclusion, arginine and vitamin E supplementation in broiler chickens diets reduced the post-vaccine stress and improved the immune response without affecting the performance.