Dietary magnesium sulfate supplementation protects heat stress-induced oxidative damage by restoring the activities of anti-oxidative enzymes in broilers.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of dietary magnesium sulfate supplementation on heat stress-induced oxidative damage in broilers. One hundred twenty 14-day-old broilers were randomly assigned into four treatment groups with three replicates of ten birds each. The broilers were reared under normal ambient temperature (24 ± 1°C) fed with a basal (control) diet or reared under high ambient temperature (35 ± 1°C between 1000 and 1800 h, 8 h each day) fed with a basal diet supplemented with magnesium sulfate (0, 2.5 or 5.0 mg/kg of diet) from 14 to 42 days of age. Growth performance and oxidative damage were evaluated in each treatment group. Our results demonstrated that dietary magnesium sulfate supplementation significantly prevented heat stress-induced oxidative damage and improved growth performance in broilers compared with that of control. Mechanistically, this beneficial effect was mediated, at least partly, by restoring the activity of anti-oxidative enzymes. This finding suggests that magnesium sulfate supplementation might be a potential strategy to attenuate heat stress-induced detrimental effects in broilers raised in summer season or tropical areas.