Lipid peroxidation as the additional indicator of transport stress in broilers

Stressful conditions (transport, temperature fluctuations, infections and excessive crowding) lead to dysfunction of immunological mechanisms in birds. They influence the lipid balance what manifests itself through the increase of the malonodialdehyde (MDA) level, reacting with the 2-thiobarbituric acid (TBA), what is an indicator of lipid peroxidation. In the case of birds, the classical indicator of the stressful reaction is the heterophile/lymphocyte ratio (H/L), which changes depending on the stress intensity. The present study defined the influence of road transport on lipid peroxidation process as the additional indicator of stress in broilers. The investigation was conducted on 10 broilers Ross 308 (39 days old), which were transported on the distance of 70 km. The birds were clinically healthy, free of parasites and free of Salmonella spp. infection in the beginning of the experiment. The determination of the TBA-reactive substances (TBARS) in serum was conducted according to the method proposed by Ledwozyw et al. (1986). The analysis of the results with a Student t-test showed the statistically significant difference (P < or = 0.05) in the TBA-reactive substances level before and directly after the birds transportation.