The effect of dietary VC on growth performance, meat quality, immune function and antioxidant capacity of broilers.

【Objective】The purposes of this study were to evaluate the effect of dietary vitamin C on growth performance,meat quality,immune function and antioxidant capacity of 42-day-old broilers.【Method】240 one-day-old Avian broiler chicks were randomly divided into three treatments with eight replicates of ten birds.Birds were fed a corn-soybean meal basal diet supplemented with 0,150,300 mg/kg vitamin C respectively.The trial period was 42 days.We determined the index of growth performance,meat quailty,immune function and antioxidant capacity of broilers in the experiment.【Result】The results showed that the dietary Vitamin C supplementation could significantly increase the daily gain and the daily feed intake of broiler(P0.05),but feed/gain ratio was not significantly affected;Compared to the control treatment,adding 300 mg/kg of vitamin C significantly increased the breast muscle rate,declined the abdominal fat rate and liver rate(P0.05),significantly increased the b* value of breast muscle in the trail groups,reduced the L* value of leg muscle(P0.05),and also had beneficial effect on the water-holding power and tenderness of leg muscle,improved the quality of the chicken meat;The group of adding Vitamin C 300 mg/kg had significantly higher Thymus index,Burse of fabricicus index and Newcastle disease antibody level than the control treatment(P0.05),improved immunological function of broilers;compared to the control group,the Vitamin C level in serum and breast muscle,the SOD,GSH-PX activity and T-AOC level were significiantly higer in the 300 mg/kg supplementation(P0.05),which eliminated the free radical,and then improved the antioxidation of the broiler's body and meat;In the cold condition of 4 ℃,adding Vitamin C significantly decreased the lipid peroxidation process,inhibited the peroxidant deterioration cooperating with the antioxidase,thereby prolonged the meat's shelf life.【Conclusion】Finally,dietary 150 mg/kg VC supplementation significantly improved the growth performance of broilers,and supplementation of dietary VC at 300 mg/kg could significantly improve the immune function and antioxidant capacity of body and meat,decline the lipid peroxidation during refrigeration,and prolong the shelf life of meat.