Abstract
The purpose of this study was to explore the effect of dietary supplementation with mixed organic acids on intestinal health, enzyme activity, and antioxidative characteristics in broilers. A total of 192 1-day-old chicks were evenly allocated to three experimental groups with eight replicates, a basal diet with 0 (Control), 3,000 mg/kg (LMOA), 6,000 mg/kg (HMOA) mixed organic acid. The tissue and serum samples were gathered on 21 and 42 d of the experiment. An increased (P < 0.05) concentration of IgA, D-lactate (D-LA), and interleukin-10 (IL-10) in the serum of broilers diets with HMOA was observed. The levels of total antioxidant capacity (T-AOC) and catalase activity (CAT) in serum were enhanced (P < 0.05) with dietary and mixed organic acid, respectively, and increased (P < 0.05) content of superoxide dismutase (SOD) and CAT in the duodenum of broilers diets with LMOA was noticed. Also, LMOA decreased (P < 0.05) the pH value of the duodenum and enhanced (P < 0.05) the amylase activity of the pancreas, the tight junction protein (mainly Claudin-1, Claudin-2, and ZO-1) in the duodenum of broilers fed with mixed organic acid were promoted (P < 0.05), and the LMOA group performed better in the small intestine. In cecum microbiota, LMOA and HMOA modulated the structure of microbiota and mainly reduced the relative abundance of Escherichia coli. In brief, dietary supplemented mixed organic acid improved the health status of broilers by promoting the immune function, enhancing the antioxidative characteristics and tight junction proteins expression as well as cecum microbiota. However, LMOA groups may be a better fit considering the comprehensive effects of experiments and economic costs.
Highlights
With the accelerating industrialization of livestock farming and the increasing attention paid to food safety, companies are increasingly concerned about the problems associated with applying antibiotics in feed, such as drug resistance in pathogenic bacteria and drug residues in livestock products [1]
The diets supplemented with LMOA and HMOA decreased (P < 0.05) the pH values of the duodenum compared to the control and decline linearly (Table 5)
We focused on the serum immune function, antioxidant capacity, pH value, tight junction, and microbiota of intestine in 21 and 42 d broilers in terms of their being affected by dietary supplemented with Mixed organic acids (MOA) at different levels, which would be helpful in determining the appropriate level of MOA and in confirming whether MOA plays a role on intestine regarding antioxidant systems, digestive enzyme activity, mechanical barrier, etc
Summary
With the accelerating industrialization of livestock farming and the increasing attention paid to food safety, companies are increasingly concerned about the problems associated with applying antibiotics in feed, such as drug resistance in pathogenic bacteria and drug residues in livestock products [1]. Mixed organic acids (MOA) are favored by feed and livestock enterprises because of their advantages of improving the growth performance and intestinal health of livestock, as well as the benefits of the three-free (i.e., drug resistancefree, residue-free, and pollution-free), which make the MOA the most promising green alternatives to antibiotics [3, 4]. Limited literature has focused on the effects of high levels of MOA in diets on immune function, antioxidant properties, digestive enzymes activity as well as intestinal health of the broiler chickens The objective of this experiment was to evaluate the effects of high and low levels of mixed organic acids in corn-soybean meal diets on immune parameters, antioxidant properties of serum and intestine, gastrointestinal enzyme activities, and intestinal health of broiler chickens to systematically and comprehensively assess the feeding effectiveness of mixed organic acids and understand the specific mechanism of organic acids as well as to provide a theoretical basis for researchers to analyze the feasibility of replacing antibiotics with mixed organic acid in livestock farming
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