摘要：The purpose of this study was to observe the histopathological lesions and oxidative damage induced by dietary nickel chloride (NiCl2) in the thymus. A total of 280 one-day-old avian broilers were divided into four groups and fed on a corn-soybean basal diet as the control diet or the same basal diet supplemented with 300, 600, and 900 mg/kg of NiCl2 for 42 days. In the NiCl2-treated groups, the broiler weight and thymic relative weight were significantly (P P P P 2-treated groups than those in the control group, while MDA content was higher. The above-mentioned results demonstrated that dietary NiCl2 in excess of 300 mg/kg could reduce the broiler weight and thymic relative weight, and cause histopathological lesions and oxidative damage in the thymus, which finally impaired the thymic function.
