Effects of in ovo injection of chrysin, quercetin and ascorbic acid on hatchability, somatic attributes, hepatic oxidative status and early post‐hatch performance of broiler chicks

Summary An experiment was conducted to evaluate the effects of in ovo injection of chrysin, quercetin and ascorbic acid on hatchability, somatic attributes, hepatic antioxidant status and early post‐hatch growth performance of broiler chicks. Four hundred and eighty embryonated broiler breeder eggs containing live 18‐day‐old embryos were divided into six groups of 80 eggs each. One group remained intact and served as a control group (i), whereas the other five groups were injected with the prepared injection solutions as follows: (ii) 0.05 ml distilled water; (iii) 0.05 ml distilled water containing 6 mg ascorbic acid; (iv) 0.05 ml dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO); (v) 0.05 ml DMSO containing 4.5 mg quercetin; and (vi) 0.05 ml DMSO containing 4.5 mg chrysin. The hatchability rate, hatching weight, residual yolk sac weight, yolk sac‐free body weight, liver weight, hepatic glutathione peroxidase and total superoxide dismutase activities, as well as malondialdehyde concentrations, were not affected by the injected solutions. There were no differences between chicks hatched from the control and in ovo injected eggs in weight gain, feed intake and feed conversion ratio from 0 to 11 days of age. However, the specific contrast performed between the in ovo injected groups and intact eggs revealed that in ovo injection significantly increased hatchability rate (p = .0493). This finding also implies that our injection procedure was harmless. In conclusion, the intra‐egg injection of chrysin, quercetin or ascorbic acid at the injection rates used in this study did not have a significant effect on hatchability, somatic characteristics, early growth performance and hepatic antioxidant status of broiler chicks. However, the overall hatchability was higher in the in ovo injected eggs as compared to non‐injected ones. These findings also confirmed the harmlessness of the procedure developed for in ovo injection in this study.