EFFECT OF VITAMIN E AND SELENIUM SUPPLEMENTATION  ON GROWTH PERFORMANCE, DIGESTIBILITY, CARCASS TRAITS AND  BLOOD COMPONENTS OF BOUSCAT RABBITS.

Rawia, S. Amin* and H.  El-Matarawy**

* Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Pharmacy, Zagazig University, Zagazig Egypt.

** Animal Production Research Institute, Agriculture Research Center, Giza, Egypt.

ABSTRACT

Sixty growing Bouscat rabbits 5 weeks old (30 male+30 females) with an average body weight of (575.33+ 12.23g) were divided at random into three comparable groups and fed the following diets. 1) Basal diet without vitamin E and selenium supplementation and served as  a control (G₁). 2) Basal diet+10 mg vitamin E+1mg selenium (G₂). 3) Basal diet+20 mg vitamin E+2mg selenium (G₃). Live body weight, daily weight gain, feed intake and feed conversion were recorded at different age studied. Digestibility of nutrient, nutritive values, carcass traits and blood components were estimated.

The results cleared that, live body weight , daily weight gain and feed conversion were not affected significantly by vitamin E and selenium supplementation. The rabbits of G2 significantly recorded the highest (P<0.01) daily feed intake through 5-13 and 9-13 weeks of the age.

Supplementation with vitamin E and selenium did not significantly affect digestibility of various nutrient and feeding values. The feeding values as TDN and DCP of G₂ were the highest, followed by G₃, then (G₁). Dry matter (DM) intake as g/head/day or g/kgw^0.75 or kg/kg body weight of the rabbits fed G₂ increased than that of the other two groups.

Concentration of globuline, total lipids, alanine and activity of aminotrnsferase  (ALT) and alkaline phosphatase were affected significantly (P < 0.05) by vitamin E and selenium supplementation. The alkaline phosphatase activity was increased with increasing  the level of vitamin E and selenium  supplementation, meanwhile total protein, albumine, urea-N, creatinine concentration and AST activity did not affected significantly by vitamin E and selenium supplementation. The carcass % increased with increasing vitamin E and selenium supplementation, while the kidney and liver percent was decreased with increasing vitamin E and selenium supplementation.

Supplementation of  20 mg vitamin E + 2 mg selenium may be recommended to meet the loss of vitamin E during the diet pelleting and unsuitable storage and to improve productive performance of Bouscat rabbits.

Key words: Vitamin E and selenium, growth performance ,digestibility, blood components, carcass, rabbits.

INTRODUCTION

All vitamins and minerals are required for production and reproduction, because of their cellular roles in metabolism, maintenance and growth. However, these nutrients also, may have specific roles and requirements in reproductive tissues.

Vitamin E and selenium are widely distributed  in all natural feeds, such as wheat germ oil, oil seeds by–products, grains by-products, all leaf forages, rice polishing, barley grains, oats, rye, sorghum, wheat grains, corn grain meal, corn gluten meal and yeast.

The relationship between vitamin E and selenium has been was established since, 1950s, when researchers found that selenium prevented exudative diathesis in vitamin E deficient chicks and liver necrosis in vitamin E deficient rats. Subsequent researches demonstrated that deficiency of both vitamin E and selenium cause reproductive disorders in  farm animals such as retained placenta, abortion, metritis, mastitis, and infertility (Larsen, 1993; Wu et al., 1995; Shetaewi, 1998 b; Meshreky and Metry , 2000; Shashi et al., 2002 and Hemingway, 2003).

Vitamin E is one of the fat soluble vitamins. It acts as an intracellular antioxidant and participates in synthesis of vitamin C  and  regulation of DNA metabolism  (Scott et al. 1982, Banerjee, 1988 and Nour El-Din, 2000). It also prevents the oxidation of unsaturated fatty acids, present in cell membranes ( Diplock, 1985 and Liebler, 1993). Moreover, vitamin E  provides disease resistance by protecting leukocytes and macrophages during phagocytosis and increasing immunity responses (Reddy et al. , 1987).

On the other hand, selenium is a vital component of the enzyme glutathione peroxidase, which reduces cytosolic peroxides and free radicals, i.e. selenium protects the cell from oxidative damage (Pehrson, 1993) and selenium influences the absorption and retention of vitamin E (Banerjee, 1988). Thus, vitamin E and selenium together protect the cell from the destructive oxidation reactions. The complementary functions of selenium and vitamin E have been hypothesized to suggest that supplementation with one can reduce, but not eliminate the requirement for the other (Van Saun et al., 1989). Recently, it was discovered that the deiodinase enzymes which convert T₄ (thyroxine, the thyroid prohormone) into T₃ (triiodothyronine, the cellularly active hormone) and also convert T₃ into T₂ , thereby degrading it, are selenium enzymes (formed with the amino acid cysteine). This discovery has led to a lot of research studies on the effects of selenium, iodine and their interactions. It has been found that without selenium, the thyroid gland becomes damaged (Behne et al., 1992 and Wu et al., 1995).

For rabbits nutrition, there are insufficient data in the literature to permit a sound recommendations for the optimum level of vitamin E and selenium in the diet. Although, several studies showed that level of vitamin E in the diet decreases with unsuitable storage, pelleting, infecting the diet with molds and presence of unsaturated fatty acids, iron and copper (Dove and Ewan,1987), a level of 40 mg per kg of diet is still suggested (NRC, 1977). Food and drug administration (FDA, 1987) has approved dietary selenium as feed additive up to 0.3 mg/kg DM of diet for all major food-producing animals.

The objective of the present study aimed to investigate the effect of adding  two levels of vitamin E and selenium in the drinking water on growth performance, digestibility, some blood serum components, and carcass traits of Bouscat rabbits.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

The experimental works of the present study was carried out at a commercial (Private) farm at Khatara, Sharkia Governorate.

In this respect, 60 growing Bouscat rabbits 5 weeks old (30 males+ 30 females) with an average initial body weight of (575.33± 12.23 g)were divided into 3 comparable groups, which to weight were subjected to evaluate the following treatments:

1. The 1^st group fed a basal diet without vitamin E or selenium supplementation and served as control (G₁)

2. The 2^nd group fed the same basal diet + 10 mg vitamin E + 1 mg selenium (G₂).

3. The 3^rd group fed the same basal diet + 20 mg vitamin E + 2 mg selenium (G₃).

The  ingredients and chemical composition of the basal diet are shown in  Table 1.

Vitamin E and selenium were added to drinking water  in the form of commercial preparation (vitamin E and selenium), purchased from Mena Vet. Co. Sadat City, Egypt. Rabbit were housed (each 2 together) in wire cages (60 x 55 x 40 cm) provided with feeders and stainless nipple.  Feeds and water were offered to rabbits ad libitum during the experimental period. Fresh drinking water either free or supplemented with vitamin E and selenium were replaced daily. The animals were kept under the same environmental and managerial conditions. The basal diets was formulated in one of feed mills to meet the nutrient requirements of rabbits according toNRC (1977). Live body weight, daily weight gain, feed intake and feed conversion were recorded at four weekly intervals.

            Digestibility trials was carried out at the 11^th week of  age using 3 male rabbits from each experimental groups. The rabbits were housed individually in metabolic cages. The trial lasted 10 days, 4 days as a preliminary period followed by 6 days as a collection period. Daily feces of each rabbit were taken and oven dried at 65 ⁰C for 48 hour, then ground and stored until the time of chemical analysis. Chemical analysis of samples of feed and feces were performed according to A. O. A. C. (1990). The metabolizable energy (ME) of the diet were calculated according to the equation described by Kalogen (1985) as follows:

ME (kcal/kg diet DM)= (0.588+0.164 x)239, where x is  a dry matter digestion coefficient of tested diet. The values of TDN were calculated according to the classic formula of Cheeke et al. (1982).

At 13 weeks of age, 3 rabbits from each experimental group were randomly slaughtered. Blood samples were taken from each rabbit at the time of slaughtering. Blood serum was separated by centrifugation at 3000  r.p.m.  for 15 minutes  and  stored  frozen (-20⁰c)  in plastic vials until  performance of  the  biochemical tests. Levels  of   serum total protein, albumen, total lipids, urea-N, creatinine, aspartate  aminotransferase   (AST)  and  alanine  aminotrnsferase (ALT) were  determined  using a calorimetric assay kits, following the methodology suggested by the procedures.

Table 1. Ingredients and chemical analysis of the basal diet.

¹One kilogram of premix contained: Vit. A 4000000 IU, Vit. D₃ 50000 IU, Vit. E 16.7 gm, Vit. K₃ 0.67 gm, Vit. B₁ 0.67 gm, Vit. B₂ 2.0 gm, Vit. B₆ 0.67 gm, Vit. B₁₂ 3.33 mg, Choline chloride 400 gm, Biotin 0.07 gm, Niacin 16.7 gm, Pantothenic acid 6.7 gm, Folic acid 1.7 gm, Magnesium 133.3 gm, Copper 1.7 gm, Iodine 0.25 gm, Selenium 33.3 mg, Iron 25 gm, Manganese 10 gm and Zinc 23.3 gm.

^2,3,4 The values were calculated according to NRC (1977).

⁵ Iodine was calculated according to Kalashnikov and Klemenov (1985).

⁶ Selenium was calculated according to Ensminger et al. (1990).

Data of the experiment were statistically analyzed according to Snedecor and Chochran (1982), using SPSS system (1998). The differences between means were tested using Duncan^, s New  Multiple  Rang Test  (Duncan,1955). 

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Growth performance:

Data in Table 2 indicated that there were no significant differences in live body weight daily weight gain or feed conversion  among the experimental groups. The rabbits gained over 8 weeks (5-13 weeks old) 1601.43, 1652.29 and 1652.00 g for G₁, G₂ anG₃,  corresponding to 28.60,29.51 and 29.50 g, respectively. However, feed intake significantly increased in G₂ ( 0.01) starting from 9^th week of age up to the end of the experiment at the 13^th week of age as compared to either G₁ or G₃, Table 2. Then respective increase in feed intake was 8.36 and 8.05 %, respectively.

Table 2. Effect of supplementation of Vitamin E and selenium on growth performance (X±SE) of growing  Bouscat rabbits.

Means in the same row having different superscript differ significantly (P<0.01).

Feed conversion was 4.74 g feed/g gain in the control group. It tended to slightly increased to be 4.90 g ration/g gain in G₂ versus a slight decrease to 4.60 g ration/g gain in G₃. Thus it could be concluded that the feed conversion was improved by the highest rate of vitamin E and selenium supplementation. Abdel-Samee and El-Masry (1997) reported that NZW growing rabbits supplemented with Vitamin E + selenium showed higher gain           (P < 0.01) than unsupplemented group. The disagreement of our results with that obtained by other researchers may be due to the differences in the levels used of vitamin E and selenium and the route of supplementation, in the drinking water or in the ration.

Digestibility of nutrient and nutritive value:

Digestibility of nutrients and feeding values from the data are shown in Table 3. It is noticed that the DM intake expressed as g/head/day or g/kgw^0.75 or kg/kg body weight of the rabbits of G₂  supplemented with 10 mg vitamin E +1 mg selenium increased than that of control  group or G₃  supplemented with 20 mg vitamin E +2 mg selenium. However, supplementation with vitamin E and selenium did not significantly affect digestibility of various nutrients or feeding value. It clearly appears that supplementation rabbits with 10 mg vitamin E +1 mg selenium recorded the best value of DM, OM, and NFE digestibility, meanwhile  G₃ (20 mg vitamin E +2 mg selenium) recorded the best value of CP and EE  digestibility coefficients.

The feeding values as TDN and DCP of G₂   was the highest values, followed by G₃, and the least was the control group. It concluded that supplementation of vitamin E and selenium increased the digestibility of DM, OM and CP than that of the control diet. While the digestibility of CF and EE  showed an opposite trend. Also the nutritive values as TDN and DCP (g/kg w^0.75 ) increased than that of the control group. 

Carcass traits:

Data in Table 4 showed that supplementation with vitamin E and selenium did not significantly affect  the dressed weight %, carcass weight  %, digestive  tract weight %, head and kidney weight %, liver weight % and heart weight %. The carcass % increased with increasing vitamin E and selenium supplementation level, while digestive tract, head, kidney, liver and heart % were decreased. Similar results were reported by Shetaewi (1998), who  found that vitamin E supplementation did not affect hot carcass weight of NZW rabbits. Also, Meshreky et al. (2002) found that percentages of  dressing, liver and kidney weights decreased (P < 0.05) in male rabbits injected with vitamin E plus selenium as compared to the control rabbits. It could be noticed that, the kidney and liver percent decreased with increasing vitamin E and selenium supplementation which may be due to effect of vitamin E and selenium as antioxidant (Scott et al. 1982,  Diplock, 1985, Banerjee, 1988, Liebler, 1993, and Nour El-Din, 2000).

Table 3. Digestion coefficient and nutritive values of growing rabbits fed diet supplemented with vitamin E and selenium.

All the differences among means in the same row were not significant.

DE (kcalkg)= DCP x 8.25 g/kg +DEE x 9.51 g/kg + DCF x 4.20 g/kg +NFE x 4.20 g/kg  (Schieman et al. (1972).

Table 4. Carcass traits of growing rabbits fed diet supplemented with vitamin E and selenium

*All the differences among means in the same row were not significant.

Blood serum components:

Data of blood analysis are shown in Table 5.  It clearly appears that the total protein, albumin, urea-N, creatinine and AST were not affected significantly by vitamin E and selenium supplementation. The values of these parameters are within the normal range.

The globulin value of rabbit of G₃ (20 mg vitamin E +2 mg selenium) was significantly (P < 0.05) higher than that of G₂ (10 mg vitamin E +1 mg selenium). Total lipids (P < 0.05), ALT and alkaline phosphatase  (P < 0.01)of rabbits of G₂ (10 mg vitamin E +1 mg selenium) and G₃ (20 mg vitamin E +2 mg selenium) were significantly higher than that control diet, but the differences  in this respect between rabbits of G₂ and G₃ were insignificant. From the data in Table 5 it could be noticed that total lipids, urea-N, creatinine, AST, ALT and Alkaline phosphatase increased with  increasing vitamin E and selenium supplementation from 10 mg vitamin E +1 mg selenium to 20 mg vitamin E +2 mg selenium. El-Husseiny et al. (1997)  and Shetaewi (1998b) found an increase  in blood plasma total protein in response to vitamin E supplementation. Also, Zeidan   et al. (2001) and Gad Alla et al. (2002) reported that buck rabbits given vitamin E had higher values in blood total protein, albumin and globulin than those fed the control diet.On the contrary, Youssef et al. (2003) found that treatment of rabbits with vitamin E significantly decreased (P < 0.05) the activities of aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alanine aminotransferase (ALT).

Table 5. Effect of supplementation of vitamin E and selenium on some blood serum components (X±SE)of  rabbits.

Means in the same row having different superscript differ significantly (P<0.05).

In conclusion

           Vitamin E and selenium are necessary for the normal growth,  whereas it significantly increased the daily feed  intake insignificantly increased the daily body gain and improved feed conversion specially by supplementation of 10 mg vitamin E +1 mg selenium) . Also, improved digestibility of most nutrient and feeding values, moreover improved liver transaminase and kidney function and carcass traits. Adding in the drinking water  a level of  10 mg vitamin E + 1 mg selenium /liter  may be recommended as a complementary level to compensate the loss of vitamin E during the diet pelleting and  unsuitable storage and to improve  productive performance of Bouscat rabbits.

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تأثیر إضافة فیتامین هـ و السیلینیوم على معدل النمو ومعاملات الهضم وصفات الذبیحة ومکونات سیرم الدم فی الأرانب البوسکات.

راویة أمین سرحان ، حمدی المطراوی

قسم  الکیمیاء ـ کلیة الصیدلة ـ جامعة الزقازیق- مصر

معهد بحوث الإنتاج الحیوانی- مرکز البحوث الزراعیة- الدقى - القاهرة- ج.م.ع.

          استخدم فی هذه الدراسة 60 أرنب بوسکات نامی  عمر 5 أسابیع (30 ذکر+30 أنثی)  بمتوسط وزن ( 575.33±12.23 جرام ) قسمت إلی ثلاث  مجموعات متساویة وغذیت الأرانب علی العلائق الآتیة:-

1-     المجموعة الأولى على العلیقة الأساسیة بدون أی إضافة واتخذت للمقارنة.

2-     المجموعة الثانیة على العلیقة الأساسیة بالإضافة الى10 مجم فیتامین هـ و 1 ملجم سیلینیوم لکل لتر من ماء الشرب.

3-     المجموعة الثالثة على العلیقة الأساسیة بالإضافة إلى 20 مجم فیتامین هـ و 2 ملجم سیلینیوم لکل لتر من ماء الشرب.   

أتضح من نتائج هذه الدراسة أن معدل الزیادة الیومیة  فی وزن الجسم  ومعدل التحویل الغذائی (جرام غذاء مستهلک/جرام زیادة وزنیة)  لم تتأثر معنویا بإضافة فیتامین هـ و السیلینیوم . سجلت الأرانب بالمجموعة الثانیة  G₂ 10 مجم فیتامین هـ و 1 ملجم سیلینیوم لکل لتر من ماء الشرب زیادة معنویة (علی مستوی احتمال 1%)  فی الغذاء المأکول الیومی لکن لم تتأثر معنویا کل من معاملات الهضم والقیم الغذائیة کمرکبات کلیة مهضومة (TDN)  أو بروتین خام مهضوم  (DCP) بإضافة فیتامین هـ و السیلینیوم. أیضا أرتفع ترکیز الجلوبیولین ونسبة الجلوبیولین/الألبیومین ونشاط أنزیم AST and ALT و أنزیم الفوسفاتیز القاعدی علی مستوی احتمال 1% فی سیرم الدم للأرانب التی أضیف لها  فیتامین هـ و السیلینیوم وبالمثل ازدادت معنویا  نسبة الدهون الکلیة ولکن علی مستوی احتمال 5%.

تشیر النتائج إلی حدوث بعض التحسن فی  معدل الأداء الإنتاجی فی الأرانب البوسکات التی أعطیت مستویات إضافیة من فیتامین هـ و السیلینیوم. وبناء علی ذلک یمکن التوصیة بإضافة  10 ملجم فیتامین هـ و1 ملجم من  السیلینیوم لکل لتر من ماء الشرب کمستوی إضافی مکمل لتعویض الفقد فی فیتامین هـ خلال عملیة تصنیع العلائق و ظروف التخزین الغیر مناسبة.