EFFECT OF DIETARY SUPPLEMENTATION OF GRAPE SEED EXTRACT OR VITAMIN E AS ANTIOXIDANT ON REPRODUCTIVE AND PHYSIOLOGICAL PERFORMANCE DURING SUMMER SEASON 2- AGED MALES DEVELOPED CHICKENS

The objective of this study was evaluatethe effect of dietary grape seed extract (GSE) or vitaminE (VE) supplementation on some reproductive and physiological performance traits of aged males of Dandrawy strain during summer months. A total number of 150 laying hen plus 30 cocks of Dandrawy (DN) strain at 60 weeks of age were used in this experiment up to 72 weeks of age. All birds were randomly divided into five equal groups each of 30 females and 6 males, with six equal replicates, wing banded and individually weighed, with nearly similar average initial live body weight of all groups. The 1st group (T1) was fed the basal diet contained 10 mg V E/kg diet according to NRC, (1994), and served as control, while 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th groups (T2,T3,T4 and T5 respectively) were fed the basal diet supplemented with 100,200mg GSE 150 and 200 mg V.E/kg diet, respectively.The obtained results indicated that increasing supplemental (GSE)or(V.E)resulted in an increase insignificantly in final body weight and body weight gain,however they did not affect feed consumption of cocks.All concentrations of dietary (GSE)or(V.E)had significant (p≤0.05) improvements in semen quality. Also, there was significant (p≤0.05) increase of the fertility and hatchability percentages from total eggs and hatchability from fertile eggs. Plasma of Tri Glycerides, Cholesterol, LDL,Glucose, and MDA were decreased (p<0.05) for cocks either supplemented with GSE or Vit. E, while HDL, Total Protein, Albumin, GSHPx and SOD, were increased (p<0.05).There were Significant (p<0.05) differences between treatments for IgG and IgM and the best value was recorded in the group received 200 mg (GSE)/kg diet followed by the group received 200mg (Vit.E). The (GSE) or (Vit.E) supplementation at 200 mg/kg diet had significantly greater testosterone, T3 and T4 concentrations (p<0.05) in blood serum than the other groups. It could be recommended that supplementing the Dandrawy cocks diet with 200, mg/kg diet (GSE)or (Vit.E) may alleviated the negative effect of hot temperature during summer season and may improved most of the previous mentioned reproductive traits, semen quality, fertility and hatchability and blood parameters.