Abstract

Impact of Zinc-Induced Moulting on Certain Health Biomarkers in White Leghorn Layers (Gallus domesticus)

Authors: Musadiq Idris, Haseeb Anwar, Faqir Muhammad, Umer Farooq, Arslan Iftikhar, Musharraf Ahmed Anjum and Fiza Alam

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.71081/cvj/2026.065

Abstract
The study was aimed to evaluate the effect of Zn-induced moulting (3 g of ZnO/kg diet) for three consecutive weeks on certain indicators of oxidative stress including total oxidant status and total antioxidant capacity in serum and tissues (Liver, Heart, kidney and muscles); while serum concentrations of homocysteine, ceruloplasmin, paraoxonase and arylesterase in commercial White Leghorn layers. The extent of DNA damage in lymphocytes was also assessed in experimental birds. After an acclimatization period of three weeks, the birds were divided into moulted (ML; n= 12) and non-moulted layers (NML; n= 12). The ML group revealed higher levels of TOS in Liver (P<0.05), Heart (P<0.01) and kidney (P<0.05). The TAC values in ML group were only higher (P<0.01) for serum while significantly lower for heart (P<0.05), kidney (P<0.01) and muscle (P<0.01) compared to NML group. Serum homocysteine and DNA damage were significantly increased (P<0.01), whereas, paraoxonase and arylesterase were decreased (P<0.01) in ML group in comparison to the NML group. Although zinc-induced (3 g/kg per day) moulting is a stressful procedure which can effectively increase the DNA damage and total oxidant status in some organs, an increased total antioxidant values in serum can be counted as the beneficial aspect of ZnO induced moulting.

Keywords: Comet assay, Oxidative status, White Leghorn, Zinc oxide