Abstract

One Hundred and fifty 150 7 day-old broilers under conditions of heat stress were randomly assigned to 3 dietary treatments of 3 replicates each There were 10 birds in each replicate The 3 diets were Diet 1 Control diet without Chromium supplementation Diet 2 - 0 15mg kg Chromium supplementation and Diet 3 - 0 25mg kg Chromium supplementation The inorganic Chromium source was Chromium chloride The aim of the study was to evaluate the effect s of heat stress on the intestinal mucosa of broilers The study lasted 7 weeks and data on performance feed intake weight gain and feed conversion ratio and intestinal morphology villus height and crypt depth were taken Data taken were subjected to statistical analysis of variance ANOVA procedure of SAS 2010 Significant differences were observed in the weight gain with the birds fed diet 3 having the highest mean value of 45 00g day and the least value of 40 00g bird for birds the on control diet However birds fed diet 3 0 25mg kg had the least significant feed conversion ratio 2 00 when compared with birds on control diet 2 25 and diet 2 2 14 The villus height in the ileum of birds on Diet 3 was significantly p 0 05 taller than that of birds on the other diets while the villus height in the jejunum of birds on Diet 1 was significantly p 0 05 taller than that of birds on the other diets