Vet World   Vol.15   March-2022  Article-19

The application of ascorbic acid as a therapeutic feed additive to boost immunity and antioxidant activity of poultry in heat stress environment

Background and Aim: Ascorbic acid, widely known as vtamin C, is an essential nutrient for animals such as poultry. Ascorbic acid in poultry feed improves animal health and thus increases the growth performance of birds. Ascorbic acid can be used in the form of synthetic products or can be naturally obtained from fruits and plants. It is soluble in water and can be easily administered in drinking water and the diet. Poultry can synthesize ascorbic acid in the body. However, the performance of the animals can be improved by adding ascorbic acid to their diet. In addition, ascorbic acid is called an antioxidant and an anti-inflammatory. This increases their resistance to disease during the transition season. Ascorbic acid supplementation positively affects the stress response, especially during the dry season in tropical countries. Furthermore, supplementing ascorbic acid in the poultry's diet improves resistance to diseases, regulates stress, and helps in the body's oxidation process. Ultimately, this enhances the laying rate, egg hatch performance, and higher poultry productivity. For layers at the end of the laying period, it helps increase the quality of the eggshell and reduces the proportion of broken eggs. Ascorbic acid has a strong relationship with other vitamins such as vitamin E and other substances such as zinc, safflower oil, folic acid, and a fibrous diet. This review aims to synthesize all the information of ascorbic acid in the poultry's diet, thereby providing the general role of ascorbic acid for the poultry industry.

Keywords: antioxidant, ascorbic acid, immune system, poultry production.

How to cite this article: Hieu TV, Guntoro B, Qui NH, Quyen NTK, Al Hafiz FA (2022) The application of ascorbic acid as a therapeutic feed additive to boost immunity and antioxidant activity of poultry in heat stress environment, Veterinary World, 15(3): 685-693.

Received: 16-11-2021  Accepted: 15-02-2022     Published online: 24-03-2022

Corresponding author: Budi Guntoro   E-mail: budiguntoro@ugm.ac.id

DOI: 10.14202/vetworld.2022.685-693

Copyright: Hieu, et al. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http:// creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.