Effects of Withania coagulans fruit powder and vitamin C on growth performance and some blood components in heat stressed broiler chickens

•Withania coagulans satisfactory increased performance of heat stressed broilers.•Vitamin C improved the broiler performance under heat stress condition.•Withania coagulans did not affect relative weight of internal organs.

This study was conducted to study the effect of Withania coagulans (WC) fruit powder and vitamin C (VC) on growth performance and some blood components in heat stressed broilers. The experiment was conducted as a 2×3 factorial arrangement of treatments with 2 concentrations of VC (0 and 250 mg/kg of diet) and 3 concentrations of WC (0, 2.5, and 5 g/kg of diet). Each of 6 dietary treatments was fed to 4 replicate pens (9 broiler chickens/pen) from 25 to 42 d of age. The house temperature was set at 34 °C±2 (from 0900 to 1700 h) throughout the experiment. Feed intake (FI), body weight gain (BWG), and feed to gain ratio (F:G) were calculated at the end of the experiment. At d 42 of age, the blood samples were collected from 1 broiler chicken per pen, and glucose and cholesterol concentrations, white blood cell (WBC) count, and activity of glutathione peroxidase (GPX) were determined. The FI and BWG increased by 5.5% and 12.7%, respectively, and F:G decreased by 6.5% with VC supplementation (P≤0.01). As dietary inclusion of WC increased from 0 to 5 g/kg, both FI and BWG increased by 5.6% (linear, P≤0.023). The activity of GPX increased (P≤0.05) by 20.57% with addition of VC to the diet, whereas no effect of WC was observed. Neither VC nor WC had effect on blood cholesterol and glucose concentrations, WBC counts, relative weight of bursa of Fabricius, spleen, and liver, and relative length of the duodenum, jejunum, and ileum. It is concluded that dietary supplementation of 250 mg VC/kg or 5 g WC fruit powder/kg improved the growth performance of heat stressed broiler chickens.