This study was to investigate the effect of oxidized wheat gluten (OG) on growth performance, gut morphology and its oxidative states of broilers. One hundred and eighty-day-old male broilers (10 chicks/pen) were randomly allocated into three dietary treatments: control diet (CON), diet with 8% wheat gluten (WG) and diet with 8% OG with six pens/treatment. Body weight (BW) (21 and 35 days) and average daily gain (ADG) (1-21 days and 22-35 days) decreased (p < .05) and feed conversion ratio (FCR) (1-21 days and 22-35 days) increased (p < .05) in OG treatment. Feed intake (FI) decreased (p < .05) in WG and OG treatments during 22-35 days. However, FI was not influenced by dietary treatments during 1-21 days (p > .05). The OG-fed broilers had a lower faecal pH value (p < .05) and higher faecal moisture content (p < 05) at 14, 21, 28 and 35 days. Villus height, crypt depth and V/C value were not different (p > .05) among treatments at 21 and 35 days. Lipid peroxidation (LPO) (21 and 35 days) and malondialdehyde (MDA) (35 days) content in crop of OG treatment increased (p < .05). Oxidized glutathione (GSSG) (21 days), LPO (21 and 35 days) and MDA (21 and 35 days) content in ileum of OG treatment increased (p < .05). The reduced glutathione/oxidized glutathione (GSH/GSSG) (21 days) and (GSH) (35 days) in ileum of OG treatment decreased (p < .05). The present findings indicate that OG might be a stressor for broiler gut, which could induce oxidative stress both in crop and in ileum, and the diarrhoea as well. The growth performance of broiler was consequently depressed.
Keywords: broiler; growth performance; oxidative stress; oxidized wheat gluten.
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