The effect of low chloride and high bicarbonate diets on growth, blood parameters, and pulmonary hypertensive response in broiler chickens reared at high altitude

An experiment was conducted in order to examine the effects of low- chloride and high- bicarbonate diets on growth performance, blood parameters, and pulmonary hypertensive response in broiler chickens. One hundred and eighty day-old male chicks were used in a completely randomized design with 3 dietary treatments including 4 replicates of 15 chicks as follow: 1) a diet supplemented with sodium chloride, 2) a diet for which dietary sodium chloride replaced with sodium bicarbonate from day old age, and 3) a diet for which dietary sodium chloride replaced with sodium bicarbonate from 21 days of age. The results indicated that weight gain, feed intake and feed conversion ratio were significantly (P < 0.05) impaired when chloride was totally replaced by bicarbonate. Feeding low-chloride diets from day old age significantly (P < 0.05) increased blood pH, partial pressure of oxygen (PO2), the saturation rate of hemoglobin with oxygen (HbO(2)), and plasma bicarbonate and potassium concentrations though it significantly (P < 0.05) decreased heterophil to lymphocyte ratio (H/L) and right ventricle to total ventricles weight ratio (RV/TV). In conclusion, substitution of bicarbonate for chloride resulted in increased PO2 and HbO(2) and decreased pulmonary hypertension as indicated by lower RV/TV.