Veterinary Research Forum
Vet Res Forum

Effects of vitamin C and early-age thermal conditioning on pituitary adreno-corticotropic hormone cells in broilers chronically exposed to heat stress: an immunohistomorphometric and hormonal study

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

Jovana Čukuranović Kokoris 1
Zoran Ružić 2
Zdenko Kanački 2
Slobodan Stojanović 2
Smiljana Paraš 3
Verica Milošević 1

1 Department of Anatomy, Faculty of Medicine, University of Niš, Niš, Serbia

2 Department of Veterinary Medicine, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Novi Sad, Novi Sad, Serbia

3 Department of Cell Biology, Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, University of Banja Luka, Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina

https://doi.org/10.30466/vrf.2023.2009320.3981
Abstract
The aim of this study was to examine the effects of heat stress (HS) on the pituitary-adrenal axis and whether the treatments with early-age thermal conditioning (ETC) and vitamin C, alone and in combination, could have a beneficial effect in alleviating these effects. For the experiment, 400 one day-old broilers (both sexes) were used, being divided into four groups. The first group was the control (K), the second group (C) consisted of broilers which received vitamin C from the 22nd to the 42nd day via water in the amount of 2.00 g L-1, in the third group (T), broilers were exposed to ETC for a period of 24 hr at a temperature of 38.00 ± 1.00 ˚C and the fourth group (T + C) was the combination of T and C groups. Immunohistochemically positive adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) cells of broilers in all groups were irregular or stellate and distributed in the periphery and central parts of the pituitary gland, as solitary cells or in clusters. In the T + C group of broilers, a significant increase in the area of ACTH cells (18.91%) and their cores (22.75%), and cortisol level in serum compared to the control group was observed. This reaction of broilers in the T + C group facilitated their adaptation to unfavorable consequences of HS. These results suggest that hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis is stimulated after the exposure to chronic HS, enabling successful adaptation of broilers to adverse conditions.

Keywords

Adrenocorticotropic hormone cells
Broiler chickens
Cortisol
Heat stress
Immunohistomorphometry

Subjects

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Veterinary Research Forum
Volume 15, Issue 3
March 2024
Pages 125-130

  • Receive Date 17 August 2023
  • Revise Date 25 September 2023
  • Accept Date 16 October 2023

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