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eCAM Advance Access originally published online on February 9, 2007
eCAM 2008 5(1):77-84; doi:10.1093/ecam/nel116
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© 2007 The Author(s).
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/uk/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Amelioration of Heat Stress Induced Disturbances of Antioxidant Defense System in Chicken by Brahma Rasayana

V. Ramnath1, P. S. Rekha1 and K. S. Sujatha2

1Department of Physiology and 2Department of Statistics, College of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Kerala Agricultural University, Mannuthy, Thrissur 680651, Kerala, India

Since the range of comfort zone or thermo neutral zone of domestic chickens is narrow, they become easily susceptible to heat and cold environmental stress. We evaluated Brahma Rasayana (BR) supplementation on concentrations of certain oxidative stress markers associated with heat stress. A total of 48 egg type male chickens of local strain were divided into six groups (n = 8) for the study. Three groups were fed with BR orally at the rate of 2 g/kg bw daily for 10 days prior to and during the period of experiment. Two of the four groups that were exposed to heat stress (HST i.e. to a temperature of 40 ± 1°C and relative humidity of 80 ± 5% in an environmental chamber) for 4 h daily for 5 or 10 days, received BR orally. The other two groups remained as BR treated and untreated non-heat stressed (NHST) controls. There was a significant (P < 0.05) increase in the activities of antioxidant enzymes in blood such as catalase (CAT) and superoxide dismutase (SOD), as well as liver CAT, glutathione peroxidase (GPX) and glutathione reductase (GR) in NHST-BR treated and HST-BR treated (both 5 and 10 days) chickens when compared with untreated controls. A great deal of significant (P < 0.05) variations were seen in serum and liver reduced glutathione (GSH) concentration in NHST-BR treated and HST-BR treated (both 5 and 10 days) chickens. Serum and liver lipid peroxidation levels were found to be significantly (P < 0.05) higher in HST-untreated (both 5 and 10 days) chickens when compared with other groups. Thus BR supplementation during HST brings about enhanced action of enzymatic and non-enzymatic antioxidants, which nullified the undesired side effects of free radicals that are generated during HST.

Keywords: antioxidant enzymes – Brahma Rasayana – chickens – heat stress

For reprints and all correspondence: V. Ramnath, Department of Physiology, College of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Kerala Agricultural University, Mannuthy, Thrissur 680651, Kerala, India. Tel: 91-0487-2370344 227; Fax: 91-0487-2370 388; E-mail: drvrnath{at}yahoo.com

Received February 28, 2006; accepted January 3, 2007


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