Effect of dietary supplementation of tea catechins on growth performance and antioxidant of chicken muscle

【Objective】 The effect of supplementation of dietary tea catechins(TC) on growth performance and antioxidant performance was evaluated.【Method】 180 21-day-old broilers were randomly divided into three treatments and 0(ControlⅠ),200(ExperimentsⅡ),400(ExperimentsⅢ)mg/kg TC was fed for 21 d respectively.42-day-old broilers were slaughtered for blood drawing.Breast meat sample and plasma of the antioxidant enzymes and Malondialdehyde(MDA) were measured on the 1st,3rd,5th,7th and 9th d when the samples were stored at 4 ℃.The enzymes included superoxide dismutase(T-SOD),glutathione peroxidase(GSH-PX),catalase(CAT).Gain weight,intake feed and feed-gain rate were measured,too.【Result】 The differences were not significant(P0.05),though the supplementation of different levels of tea catechins could enchance the growth and slaughter performance.The chicken's CAT activity was significantly higher than that of control groups in blood(P0.05).The activity of GSH-PX and T-SOD was significantly higher than that of control groups(P0.05),except for female-chicks T-SOD in blood and verse.In breast meat,the activity of GSH-PX and T-SOD was significantly higher than that of the control(P0.05),except for male-chicks T-SOD and verse;the activity of CAT in male Ⅲ was significantly higher than that of control groups(P0.05),but that of the female was significantly lower than that of control group(P0.05).Storage on 7th day at 4 ℃,MDA of the experiment groups was significantly lower than that of control groups(P0.05),and declined on the 9th day.【Conclusion】 Tea catechins can increase body gain,decrease feed-meat ratio and the MDA value,and improve the activity of antioxidant enzyme,and gender differences exist in TC diet in the effects on the growth performance and antioxidant of chicken muscle.