Effect of a natural versus a synthetic antioxidant, and sex and age on the redox profile in the blood of growing turkeys

Abstract

An investigation was conducted with turkeys during the spring-summer seasons of 2008 to 2011. Each season the turkeys were allocated to three treatments. The control received a standard compound feed. In the second treatment, a natural feed additive, consisting of 5% extracted polyphenols from Cynara scolymus, was included in the diet, and the third consisted of a synthetic antioxidant mixture containing 17% butylhydroxytoluene (BHT), 6% propyl gallate, 2.4% etoxyquin and 25% citric acid. Blood samples were collected from the brachial vein, and antioxidative parameters were measured in the plasma. The males in the study had a significantly higher concentration of peroxides, malondialdehyde and vitamin C in their plasma than the females. The plasma concentration of low-molecular antioxidants, as well as the activity of the antioxidative enzymes, decreased with the age of the birds. The inclusion of the natural and synthetic feed additives to the diet increased the levels of the ferric-reducing ability of plasma and of vitamin C in turkeys.

Keywords: Cynara scolymus, polyphenols, FRAP, vitamin C, free radicals