Effects of Dietary Vitamin C Supplementation on Some Serum Biochemical Parameters of Laying Japanese Quails Exposed To Heat Stress (34.8°C)

An important economic goal of the poultry industry is to increase the productivity. However, the productivity of this industry is threatened by climatic, physical, and social stressors [7]. High temperature in poultry-house reduces feed intake, body weight gain and feed efficiency. Furthermore, high ambient temperature causes the release of corticosterone and catecholemines. Corticoids depress immune system function, reduce serum protein concentrations and increase blood glucose concentrations which have damaging effect on poultry performances by decreasing body weight gain and egg production. Therefore, maximum production requires the elimination of the deleterious impacts of environmental stressors [2, 7]. Several methods are available to reduce the adverse effects of high ambient temperature on performance of poultry. Since cooling of animal buildings is expensive, alternative methods are preferred to reduce the negative effects of environmental stressors. By decreasing synthesis and secretion of corticosteroids, dietary vitamin C has been reported to have beneficial effects on poultry housing under heat stress [1, 21, 24, 29].