Vol. 9, Special Issue 5, Part F (2024)

Author(s): Dr. M Anandhi and Dr. Jayanaik

Abstract: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of early feeding of nano particles of zinc, copper and chromium on immune response in broiler chicken. A total of 240 day old straight run broiler chicks (Cobb 400) from a single hatch, individually weighed, wing banded and randomly allotted into five treatment groups each consisting of four replicates with twelve chicks each. Basal diet for T₁ and T₂ treatment groups contained inorganic forms of zinc, copper and chromium as per NRC (1994). However, the diet for treatment groups T₃, T₄ and T₅ were supplemented with nano forms of zinc, copper and chromium at 40 mg/Kg, 8mg/Kg and 0.5 mg/Kg of basal diet, respectively. The birds in group T₁ were fed starter basal diet after 24 hours of hatching and the birds in group T₂ to T₅ were fed their respective starter basal diet immediately after hatching. All birds were fed their respective starter feed for seven days except T₁ which were fed only for six days. From 8^th to 21^st days and 22^nd to 42^nd days all birds were fed starter and finisher diet as per NRC (1994). Early chick feeding of nano trace minerals significantly (P≤0.05) improved the weight of bursa of Fabricius and thymus and increased the antibody titers against NDV and IBDV.