The effects of zinc oxide nanoparticles on performance, digestive organs and serum lipid concentrations in broiler chickens during starter period

The aim of current study was to investigate the effect of different levels of zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZONPs) on growth Performance, digestive organs and serum lipids concentration in broiler chickens during starter phase (121d). Three hundred one-d-old broilers (Ross- 308) were randomly divided into 5 treatments including 75 birds. All treatments were replicated 4 times, using 15 birds in each pen. The experimental diet was T1) basal diet (control, without ZONPs), T2, T3, T4 and T5 supplementation basal diet with 30, 60, 90 and 120 mg/kg of ZONPs respectively. This study was lasted 21 d and birds accessed as ad libitum to feed and water throughout research. Live body weight (LBW) and feed intake (FI) measured as weekly and feed conversion ratio (FCR) calculated at the final of research. On d 21, 4 birds in each group were selected as randomly, blood samples collected from bronchial vein and after centrifuging (3000 rpm for 15 min at 4°C), serum removed and stored in 20 °C until analysis. The results revealed that ZONPs had significantly affected on body weight gain (P 0.05), triglyceride (TG) (P>0.05) and cholesterol (P>0.05), as well as increased high density lipoproteins (HDL) (P<0.05), respectively compared to control treatment. In conclusion, ZONPs can improve growth performance especially at the levels of 30 to 90 mg/kg of diet in broiler