Effects of dietary lycopene and organic chromium supplementation on performance and some blood metabolites of broiler chicks

The purpose of the present study was to determine the effects of dietary lycopene and organic chromium supplementation on performance and some blood metabolites of broiler chicks. A day old male broiler chicks (Hubbard) were divided 4 treatments groups with similar live weight (47.62 g), containing 20 birds each. The birds were fed basal diets (control group), 100 ppm Lycopene (%0.8 lycopene including Lyc-O-Mato®), 400 ppb Chromium (Co-Factor III Chromium Yeast, Alltech, 0.1% Cr3+) and 100 ppm Lycopene+400 ppb Chromium supplemented diets for 6 weeks period. Feed and water are given ad libitum. Broiler performance was assessed by recording weekly feed intake, weekly live weight gain, carcass weight and abdominal fat weight end of the experiment.At the end of the experiment 8 birds from each group were randomly chosen to take blood samples. The plasma was analysed for glucose, cholesterol and triglycerides.The results show that chromium supplementation had significant effects on feed efficiency ratio (p<0.05) first week of the experiment. Feed consumption and live weight gain were decreased by supplemental chromium last week of the experiment (p<0.05). Glucose content in the plasma was significantly lower in the group receiving supplemental chromium (p<0.01).The results obtained present study suggests that lycopene and chromium supplementation had no significant effects on broiler chicks performance and blood metabolites. Feed intake and live weight gain were significantly decreased by lycopene+chromium supplementation last week of the experiment.