Introduction: This experiment was done to compare nano copper oxide with copper sulfate
and copper oxide on the productive performance, intestinal morphology, red blood cell indices
and serum antioxidant status in broiler chickens.
Materials & Methods: This study was conducted on 300 chickens in a completely
randomized design with four treatments, five replications and 15 chicken for each replication.
Treatments include 1- control without copper supplementation; 2- nano copper oxide, 3-
copper oxide and 4- copper sulfate (containing 30 mg/kg respectively). At the end of the
experiment, the data were compared with the GLM procedure of SAS software (SAS, 2004)
and Duncan's multiple range test used to compare means. Growth performance of chickens,
intestinal morphology and serum antioxidant status were measured;
Results: The results showed that the growth performance of the bird was not affected by the
experimental treatments. The productive performance and the viability were also not affected
by the experimental treatments. The length of the intestinal villi of experimental chickens was
significantly affected by the treatment; so that the use of nano-copper caused the lowest length
of intestinal villi and had a significant difference with the control and copper sulfate treatment
(P<0.05). Mean corpuscular hemoglobin (MCH) was significantly lower in copper sulfate
treatment than other treatments (P<0.05). The effect of experimental treatments on serum
antioxidant status showed that serum catalase level was not affected, but serum
malondialdehyde level was significantly lower in nano copper treatment than other treatments
(P<0.001).
Conclusion: The results of the present research showed that there is no noticeable difference
in terms of bird performance between nano copper treatments and other sources, which nano
sources have a much higher price than the common sources of copper (sulfate and oxide), and
to reduce costs, economic sources are preferred.