Effect of different selenium sources on production performance and biochemical parameters of broilers

Selenium (Se) is an essential trace element for animal and human. Supplementation of Se usually in livestock diet has been proved as effective element. This study was conducted to investigate the effect of different sources of selenium on growth performance, slaughter performance, immune trait, oxidation resistance, meat quality and selenium content in tissue of broilers to comprehensively evaluate the effect of selenium. A total of 324 1‐day‐old AA broilers were selected and randomly allocated to three treatments of six replicates with 18 broilers each. The trial period was 42 days and was divided into two periods. Our results showed that effect of different sources of selenium on growth performance, slaughter performance, the immune status, drip loss and flesh had not significant difference (p > 0.05); while the activities of serum glutathione peroxidase (GSH‐Px), total superoxide dismutase (T‐SOD), the abilities to inhibit hydroxyl radical (OH˙) and total antioxidant capacity (T‐AOC) were significantly higher in selenium yeast than sodium selenite groups, and the contents of MDA of selenium yeast groups were significantly lower than that of sodium selenite. This study demonstrated that the different sources of selenium had no obvious effect on production performance of broilers, but significantly influenced the broiler oxidation resistance.