Evaluation of a Dietary Organic Selenium Supplement at Different Dietary Protein Concentrations on Growth Performance, Body Composition and Antioxidative Status of Broilers Reared Under Heat Stress (Report‪)‬

INTRODUCTION High environmental temperatures have deleterious effects, reducing the feed intake, live weight gain and feed efficiency of poultry. Feed intake and growth of broilers have been estimated to decrease about 3.6 and 1.5%, respectively, per degree increase between 22 and 32[degrees]C (Baziz et al., 1996). Heat stress causes a negative impact on growth and immunity due to induced alterations in physiological, hormonal, and molecular status as well as lipid peroxidation (Donker et al., 1990). Research has shown that supplementing broiler diets with antioxidants alleviated metabolic changes and lipid peroxidation caused by heat stress (Sahin et al., 2002).