The effect of organic selenium on haematological and biochemical parameters of blood and the quality of pheasant breast meat

Th e aim of this study was to determine the eff ect of supplementing food with various concentrations of organic selenium (0.2 and 0.3 mg/kg diet) on the biochemical and haematological parameters of blood and the qual-ity of breast meat of 45 pheasants. Th e pheasants were divided into three groups and fed mixtures containing organic selenium supplementation in the concentrations of 0.2 mg/kg (1st group) and 0.3 mg/kg (2nd group) and a mixture without selenium in a control group (K). Aft er 60 days of the ex-periment, it was determined that the average values of selenium content in the breast meat and blood serum of the 2nd group of pheasants which were fed 0.3 mg/kg of organic selenium were signifi cantly higher (p < 0.05) than the same parameters of the pheasants from K group. Th e pheasants from the 2nd group also had better sensory traits of meat and they had the highest diff erence of the sum of the ranks of meat acceptability. Th e diff erence was by 15 points higher than that in the K group and 7 points higher than in the meat of the pheasants from the 1st group that fed 0.2 mg/kg of selenium. Th e addition of organic selenium supplementation to the diet for the 2nd group of pheasants (0.3 mg/kg) increased the water retention capacity in breast meat by 0.75% compared to the K group, namely by 0.58% in comparison to the 1st group. Th e average values of chemical parameters of meat (pH, water, fat, proteins and ash content), haematological parameters of pheasant blood (number of erythrocytes, leucocytes and platelets, haemoglobin and haem-atocrit values) and biochemical parameters of blood serum (glucose, en-zymes: aspartate transaminase and alanine aminotransferase, total protein concentration, total cholesterol albumin, triglycerides, calcium, potassium and sodium) were within the limits of reference values for pheasants and very uniform without signifi cant variations among experimental groups.