Efficacy of turmeric (Curcuma longa) as antioxidant in combating heat stress in broiler chicken

Alleviation of heat stress in broiler chicken using turmeric (Curcuma longa) - a short review

“…Turmeric rhizome powder has previously been demonstrated to improve the heterophil/lymphocyte ratio and immunoglobulin (Ig) G antibody titers against SRBC in broiler study conducted by Akhavan-Salamat and Ghasemi (2016). In line with the latter J Anim Behav Biometeorol (2020) 8:215-222 report, Swathi et al (2016) reported that turmeric powder (0.4% of diets) increased cell-mediated immune response against phytohaemagglutinin and humoral immune response against Newcastle disease vaccine (NDV) in broilers exposed to heat stress. The increased corticosterone and decreased antioxidant enzyme activities have been associated with the immune depression in broilers maintained under high thermal conditions (Sugiharto et al 2017b).…”

“…The increased corticosterone and decreased antioxidant enzyme activities have been associated with the immune depression in broilers maintained under high thermal conditions (Sugiharto et al 2017b). Turmeric was previously reported to prevent the increased corticosterone level in the bloodstream (Swathi et al 2016) while increasing the antioxidant enzyme activities in heat-stressed broilers (El-Maaty et al 2014; Swathi et al 2016). Such conditions may, therefore, alleviate the impairing effect of heat stress on the immune system of broilers.…”

“…Given that curcumin may elevate plasma concentrations of thyroid hormones (Xie et al 2019), feeding turmeric may, therefore, compensate for the reduced activity of thyroid hormones due to heat stress. Moreover, the potentials of turmeric in improving the immune and oxidative system (Swathi et al 2016;Sadeghi and Moghaddam 2018) and thus health are most also likely to save the energy for broiler growth during heat stress.…”

“…Considering the catabolic activity of this stress hormone, the increased level of serum corticosterone in broilers during heat stress may implicate in muscle protein break down (Xu et al 2018) and diversion of energy from muscle biosynthesis to maintenance (Zaytsoff et al 2019). Feeding turmeric has been noticed to alleviate the increased corticosterone in broilers due to heat stress (Swathi et al 2016). Formerly, Amr et al (2017) reported the efficacy of turmeric powder in restoring the detrimental effect of corticosterone administration on the physiological conditions of broilers.…”

“…Feeding turmeric powder was able to lower the plasma concentrations of uric acid and creatinine in heat-stressed broilers as reported by El-Maaty et al ( 2014) and Bagban et al (2016). It was possible that the reduced concentration of corticosterone due to turmeric administration (Swathi et al 2016) may lower the catabolic activity of muscle protein and thus reduce the content of uric acid and creatinine in the circulation. Turmeric may also improve feed intake and digestibility (El-Maaty et al 2014; Sadeghi and Moghaddam 2018) and thereby improve the energy supply for the chickens during thermal stress.…”