THE EFFECT OF ADDING ORGANIC SELENIUM ON HAEMATOLOGICAL AND BIOCHEMICAL PARAMETERS OF BLOOD AND QUALITY OF BREAST MEAT OF PHEASANTS

Abstract The aim of this paper was to examine the biochemical and haemological parameters of blood as well as the quality of breast meat of 45 pheasants. The pheasants were divided into three groups and fed by mixtures with the organic selenium supplementation in concentrations of 0.2 mg/kg (I group) and 0.3 mg/kg (II group)and with mixture without selenium in a control group (K). After 60 days of the experiment duration it was determined that the average values of selenium content in the breast meat in blood serum of II group pheasants which were fed with 0.3 mg/kg of organic selenium were significantly higher (p>0.05) in comparison to the same parameters of pheasants of the control K group. The pheasants of II group also had better sensory traits of meat and they achieved the highest difference of the sum of the ranks of the meat acceptability.  The difference was by 15 points higher than in the control K group and 7 points higher than in meat of the pheasants I group fed with 0.2 mg/kg of selenium. Adding of organic selenium in the food of  II group pheasants (0.3 mg/kg) had a positive effect on increasing the water retention capacity in breast meat by 0.75% compared to the control group, namely by 0.58% in comparison to I group. Average values of chemical parameters of meat (pH, water, fat, proteins and ash content), haematological parameters of pheasants blood  (number of erythrocytes, leucocytes and platelets, haemoglobin and haematocrit values) and biochemical parameters of blood serum ( glucose, enzymes AST and  ALT), total protein concentration, total cholesterol albumin, triglycerides, Ca, K and Na) were within the limits of reference values for pheasants and very uniform values without significant differences among examined groups.