Effect of thyme essential oil and selenium on intestine integrity and antioxidant status of broilers

Abstract

1. This study evaluated the duodenal wall integrity, antioxidant status as well as some immunological parameters of broiler chickens supplemented with 0.5 g Thymus vulgaris essential oil (EO)/kg diet and 0.4 mg Se/kg DM (dry matter) derived from sodium selenite. 2. A total of 192 one-d-old randomly divided chickens of both sexes (Ross 308 hybrid broilers) were divided into 4 treatment groups of 48 birds each. 3. The first group was fed on a nutritionally balanced basal diet (BD). The other three groups received BD supplemented with 0.5 g/kg thyme oil, or 0.4 mg Se/kg DM, or both feed additives together. 4. The results for the evaluated feed additives were (1) thyme oil - decreased malondialdehyde (MDA) concentration in duodenal mucosa and kidney, increased immunoglobulin A (IgA) concentration in duodenal mucosa, stimulated phagocytic activity in blood, improved intestinal barrier integrity (2) selenium - increased glutathione peroxidase (GPx) activity in blood and liver as well as thioredoxin reductase (TrxR) activity in duodenal mucosa, liver and in the kidney, (3) EO with selenium - increased thioredoxin reductase (TrxR) activity in duodenal mucosa. 5. These results demonstrated that thyme oil alone showed more effective potential to improve intestinal barrier integrity and antioxidant status as well as evoking an immune response in chickens, than if diets were supplemented with both thyme oil and selenium.

Lack of Evidence That Selenium-Yeast Improves Chicken Health and Modulates the Caecal Microbiota in the Context of Colonization by Campylobacter jejuni

“…We also observed a high and unexpected variation between individual samples. This observation is in opposition with the current literature where the use of selenium is usually associated with increased levels of immunoglobulins and GPX, factors associated with healthy chickens (Chen et al, 2014; Placha et al, 2014; Boostani et al, 2015). Under our experimental settings, the exact mechanisms driving these unexpected results remained unidentified.…”

Essential oil and aromatic plants as feed additives in non-ruminant nutrition: a review

“…Beside benefits on meat quality, EOs or plant extracts are also reported to improve redox balance in different organs [55,86], and attenuate oxidative injury induced by different physiological stressors [87-89]. Table 5 shows the results of an experiment where different concentrations of ginger root powder and its EOs were fed to broilers raised under heat stress conditions [33].…”

Effects of organic, inorganic, and nano-Se on growth performance, antioxidant capacity, cellular and humoral immune responses in broiler chickens exposed to oxidative stress

“…The results of the present study are in agreement with this report. Placha et al (2014) observed that inorganic Se (0.4 mg/kg) significantly increased glutathione peroxidase activity in blood and liver. Also, Wang (2009) concluded that supplementation of nano-Se and sodium Table 5 Effect of organic, inorganic and nano-selenium on relative weights (% of body weight) of liver and lymphoid organs at days 21 and 42 of age.…”