The effect of dietary sumac fruit powder (Rhus coriaria L.) on performance and blood antioxidant status of broiler chickens under continuous heat stress condition

The effects of different levels of 0.0 sumac fruit powder (Z-SFP), 0.25 (L-SFP), 0.50 (M-SFP) and 1% (H-SFP) along with 100 mg/kg alpha tocopherol acetate (VE) were investigated on performance and blood antioxidant status of broiler chickens under heat stress condition. L-SFP, M-SFP and VE birds showed higher body weight gain (BWG) than Z-SFP and H-SFP birds during the starter period (P<0.05). No significant differences were observed among the treatments for feed intake (FI) during the starter, grower and whole the experimental periods (P>0.05). Feed conversion ratio (FCR) of M-SFP and VE birds were lower than that of H-SFP birds during the starter period (P<0.05). Moreover, no significant differences were observed for FCR or BWG between the treatments during the grower and whole the experimental periods (P>0.05). The blood total antioxidant capacity (TAC), malondialdehyde (MDA) content and the activity of superoxide dismutase (SOD) and glutathione peroxidase (GPX) enzymes were not affected by dietary treatments at week 6 of age (P>0.05). It was concluded that although dietary SFP consumption can improve the performance of broiler chickens during the starter period under heat stress, it does not affect the performance during grower period or the blood antioxidant indices at week 6 of age.