The effect of different types of in ovo selenium injection on the immunity, villi surface area, and growth performance of local chickens

BACKGROUND AND AIM: The presence of free radicals may lower chicken’s performance. Thus, the antioxidant defense is needed and can be made through a nutritional approach such as selenium supplementation before hatches. This study aimed to investigate the type of selenium that, as an in ovo feeding (IOF) material, can provide the most enhancement of immunity, villi surface area, and early growth performance of local chickens. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This study, with a completely randomized design, used 480 fertile Kampung Unggul Balitbangtan (KUB, a selected local breed) chicken eggs, with 120 eggs per treatment for four treatments. The four treatments of IOF material included the treatment with organic selenium yeast (SY), organic hydroxy-selenomethionine (HSM), inorganic sodium selenite (SS), and uninjected selenium (control). A solution containing 0.15 ppm of different selenium was injected into the egg amnion after 18 days of incubation. Once hatched, the chicks were placed in three individual cages for each treatment (capacity of eight birds per cage). The parameters observed were the villi surface area, antibody titer, the number of total and differentiated leucocytes, glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) activity levels, and growth and feed efficiency of the early growth performance. RESULTS: All the in ovo selenium feeding, except SS, significantly affected the villi surface area, antibody titer, and lymphocyte and heterophil percentages; however, the feedings were still not optimal for enhancing antibody titers and total and differentiated leukocytes. All types of selenium were demonstrated to increase the activity of GSH-Px significantly compared to the control treatment (p<0.05). Furthermore, the daily gain and feed conversion ratio of the groups treated with SY and HSM was significantly improved compared to that of the control group. CONCLUSION: In ovo SY and HSM improve immunity significantly, villi surface areas and performance. Therefore, both types are the best nutrient ingredients of IOF for building immunity and producing good performance in chickens.