Dietary Supplementation With Magnolia Bark Extract Alters Chicken Intestinal Metabolite Levels.

Inkyung Park,Erik. P. Lillehoj,Sungtaek Oh,Hyun S. Lillehoj

doi:10.3389/fvets.2020.00157

Abstract

Magnolia bark extract administered as a dietary supplement to poultry confers a performance and health benefit, but the mechanisms are unknown. Here, a metabolomics approach was used to identify changes in intestinal metabolite levels in chickens fed an unsupplemented diet or a diet supplemented with magnolia bark extract. Total body weight gains of chickens fed magnolia bark-supplemented diets were increased 2% (from 861 to 878 g/chicken), compared with chickens fed an unsupplemented diet. Compared with unsupplemented controls, the levels of 278 intestinal biochemicals (metabolites) were altered (165 increased, 113 decreased) in chickens given the magnolia-supplemented diet. Data for biochemicals of intestinal contents of chickens fed the unsupplemented diet clustered on the left side of the PCA score plot, while those of the magnolia-supplemented diet were separated and clustered on the right side. The biochemicals included changes in the levels of amino acids, fatty acids, peptides, and nucleosides, which provided a distinctive biochemical signature unique to the magnolia-supplemented group, compared with the unsupplemented group. These results provide the foundation for future studies to identify naturally-produced biochemicals that might be used to improve poultry growth performance.

Highlights

Regulatory agencies warn that the rise of multidrug-resistant bacterial pathogens could potentially be the greatest threat to human health of our time [1, 2]
We previously reported that two commonlyused antibiotics, bacitracin and virginiamycin, alter the intestinal metabolome when given as dietary antibiotic growth promoters (AGPs) to broiler chickens [13]
Final body weights (878 ± 5.8 g) at day 21 of chickens fed the magnoliasupplemented diet were greater (p < 0.05) than those (861 ± 5.8 g) of chickens fed the unsupplemented diet, confirming the previously reported growth enhancing effect of chickens fed a diet supplemented with 0.33 mg the magnolia extract/kg [12]

Summary

Introduction

Regulatory agencies warn that the rise of multidrug-resistant bacterial pathogens could potentially be the greatest threat to human health of our time [1, 2]. Among the causes for the development and spread of antibiotic-resistant human pathogens is the overuse of antibiotic growth promoters (AGPs) in food animal production. Animal agriculture is responsible for more than 70% of total antibiotic usage worldwide, principally as in-feed additives for growth promotion. AGPs have been used to increase the growth rate and improve feed conversion (kg body weight gain per kg feed) since the 1940’s [4]. While it is clear that dietary supplementation of chickens with antibiotics alters the intestinal microbiome and increases the bioavailability of nutrients to the host, the exact mechanism of action of AGPs is unknown [5,6,7]. As a result, formulating a rationale scientific approach to the identification of non-antibiotic alternatives that provide a growth enhancing effect without the potential for development of drug resistance has been impeded

Methods

Results

Conclusion