Dietary Se-Enriched Cardamine enshiensis Supplementation Alleviates Transport-Stress-Induced Body Weight Loss, Anti-Oxidative Capacity and Meat Quality Impairments of Broilers

SIMPLE SUMMARY: Meat quality is an important factor influencing the desire of people to purchase chicken meat, and ultimately their satisfaction. However, the meat quality of chicken is often affected by pre-slaughter transportation. Transport stress changes the metabolism as well as psychological status of broilers, which leads to production of extensive reactive oxygen species. Selenium (Se) plays an important role in alleviating oxidative stress of livestock and the most common Se source is sodium selenite (Na(2)SeO(3)) as an inorganic form. Se-enriched Cardamine enshiensis (SeCe) is a newly discovered Brassicaceae plant which is known to hyperaccumulate Se, and some studies have showed the positive effects of SeCe on performance and anti-oxidative capacity in humans and animals. However, there is very little evidence reporting the effects of dietary SeCe on performance and meat quality of broilers under transport stress. Therefore, the objective of this study was to compare the effects of two sources of Se (Na(2)SeO(3) vs. SeCe) on body weight loss, anti-oxidative capacity and meat quality of broilers under transport stress. The results showed that a supplement of 0.3 mg/kg of Se sourced from SeCe alleviated transport stress-induced body weight loss, anti-oxidative capacity and meat quality impairments of broilers compared with the broilers fed 0.3 mg/kg of Se sourced from Na(2)SeO(3) diets. ABSTRACT: The aim of this experiment was to explore the effects of a new selenium (Se) source from Se-enriched Cardamine enshiensis (SeCe) on body weight loss, anti-oxidative capacity and meat quality of broilers under transport stress. A total of 240 one-day-old ROSS 308 broilers were allotted into four treatments with six replicate cages and 10 birds per cage using a 2 × 2 factorial design. The four groups were as follows: (1) Na(2)SeO(3)-NTS group, dietary 0.3 mg/kg Se from Na(2)SeO(3) without transport stress, (2) SeCe-NTS group, dietary 0.3 mg/kg Se from SeCe without transport stress, (3) Na(2)SeO(3)-TS group, dietary 0.3 mg/kg Se from Na(2)SeO(3) with transport stress, and (4) SeCe-TS group, dietary 0.3 mg/kg Se from SeCe with transport stress. After a 42 d feeding period, the broilers were transported by a lorry or kept in the original cages for 3 h, respectively. The results showed that dietary SeCe supplementation alleviated transport-stress-induced body weight loss and hepatomegaly of the broilers compared with the broilers fed Na(2)SeO(3) diets (p < 0.05). Furthermore, dietary SeCe supplementation increased the concentrations of plasma total protein and glucose, and decreased the activities of aspartate aminotransferase and alanine aminotransferase of the broilers under transport stress (p < 0.05). Dietary SeCe supplementation also enhanced the anti-oxidative capacity and meat quality in the breast and thigh muscles of the broilers under transport stress (p < 0.05). In summary, compared with Na(2)SeO(3), dietary SeCe supplementation alleviates transport-stress-induced body weight loss, anti-oxidative capacity and meat quality impairments of broilers.