Table 7.

The effect of inclusion of safflower oil and vitamin C in the broiler chicken diet on the antioxidant defense system, selective immunological parameters and liver, and kidney function tests

Item	Vitamin C level (mg/kg diet)		Safflower oil level (gm/kg diet)			Vitamin C × Safflower oil						SEM	P-value
	0	400	0	5	10	0Vit.C+ 0Saff. Oil	0Vit.C + 5 Saff. Oil	0Vit.C+ 10 Saff. Oil	400Vit.C+ 0Saff. Oil	400Vit.C+ 5 Saff. Oil	400Vit.C+ 10Saff. Oil		Vit. C	Saff. oil	Vit. C x Saff. oil
Antioxidant status
Serum CAT (U/L)	567.44b	580.00a	571.16	573.50	576.50	563.33	567.00	572.00	581.00	580.00	579.00	3.17	0.04	0.81	0.52
Serum SOD (U/ml)	25.94b	32.85a	26.60	29.81	31.78	23.40	25.06	29.36	29.80	34.56	34.20	1.49	0.01	0.38	0.14
Serum GSH (mmol/L)	4.14b	6.57a	4.50	5.36	6.21	3.40	3.96	5.06	5.60	6.76	7.36	0.55	0.02	0.47	0.25
Muscle MDA (μmol/gm)	4.61	3.60	5.34a	3.70b	3.27b	6.35a	4.01b	3.47b	4.32b	3.40b	3.07b	1.81	0.08	< 0.01	<  0.01
Immunological status
IgA (ng/ml)	55.80b	66.58a	58.48	60.71	64.38	53.53b	56.73b	57.13ab	63.43ab	64.70ab	71.63a	2.14	0.001	0.43	0.01
Complement-3 (ng/ml)	134.66b	147.88a	137.50	140.83	145.50	131.00b	135.00a	138.00ab	144.00ab	146.66ab	153.00a	5.23	0.00	0.32	< 0.01
Cortisone (ng/ml)	9.95	10.07	10.03	10.01	10.00	9.90	10.03	9.93	10.06	10.00	10.16	0.07	0.44	0.98	0.95
Liver function
ALT (U/L)	12.44	11.77	12.00	11.83	12.50	12.33	12.00	13.00	11.66	11.66	12.00	0.71	0.65	0.93	0.99
AST (U/L)	34.33	34.33	35.00	33.83	34.16	35.00	34.33	33.66	35.00	33.33	34.66	0.82	1.00	0.85	0.99
Kidney function
Uric acid (mg/dl)	4.92	5.01	5.41	5.06	4.41	5.23	4.50	5.03	5.60	5.63	3.80	0.36	0.90	0.54	0.73
Creatinine (mg/dl)	0.69	0.71	0.71	0.70	0.69	0.71	0.69	0.67	0.72	0.72	0.71	0.01	0.3	0.71	0.88

^{a, b} Means within the same row carrying different superscripts are significantly different at (P < 0.05)