Vitamin C and selenium on physiological variables and diet metabolizability in broilers

Abstract

This study was carried out to evaluate the effect of vitamin C and selenium on nutrient metabolizability, nitrogen balance and utilization efficiency. 140 chickens were used for the metabolism assay. In the experimental trial, a 2 x 3 + 1 factorial scheme was used, with two levels of vitamin C supplementation (150 and 300 mg of coated ascorbic acid/kg of feed), associated with three levels of selenium (0.2; 0.4 and 0.6 mg of selenium yeast/kg of ration) in addition to a control treatment (without vitamin C and selenium supplementation) totaling seven treatments and five replications, with animals submitted to a natural condition of high temperature. Supplementation of 300 mg of vitamin C associated with 0.6 mg of selenium per kilogram in diets for broilers, under environmental conditions above the thermoneutrality zone in the evaluated phase, provides better availability of apparent metabolizable energy when corrected for nitrogen balance, and does not present a positive effect for the other variables studied in relation to the control group.