Effect of different cereal-based diets supplemented with multi-enzyme blend on growth performance villus structure and gene expression (SGLT1, GLUT2, PepT1 and MUC2) in the small intestine of broiler chickens

Abstract

An experiment was conducted to evaluate the effect of corn, wheat and barley-based diets supplemented with COMBO® multi-enzyme (an enzyme blend with 1000 active unit of phytase and 480 active unit of glycanase per gram in form of powder) on physiological response of chickens. Growth performance (gain, feed intake, and feed conversion), villus structure (villus height, villus width, crypt depth) and expression of glucose and peptide transporters (SGLT1, GLUT2, PepT1) and mucin producer (MUC2) genes in the small intestine of chickens were measured. One-day old Ross 308 mixed broiler chickens (n = 625) were allocated to 5 treatments with 5 replicates, using a completely randomized design (CRD), statistical plan. The control diet produced the greatest live weight (2251.26 g) and the lowest live weight (2015.77 g), was for birds on the wheat diet (P < 0.01). Cumulative feed intake and the mean daily feed intake was the greatest for the barley + enzyme treatment (4392.37 g) and the lowest (4164.21 g) for the wheat treatment (P < 0.01). The birds of control diet had the lowest feed conversion (1.90), but wheat and barley diets had the highest value (2.06). The smallest crypt depth in the jejunum (95 μm) was associated with birds in the barley + enzyme treatment and the greatest crypt depth in the jejunum (116 μm) belonged to birds on the wheat treatment. Wheat and barley diets resulted in a reduced villus height but supplementation with a multi-enzyme blend resulted in an increased the villus height (P < 0.01). Barley and wheat treatments had the greatest expression of glucose transporter (1.85 and 1.78 for SGLT1, 1.80 and 1.72 for GLUT2 respectively), peptide transporter (2.82 and 2.50 for PepT1) and mucin producer (1.38 and 1.48 for MUC2) genes in the small intestine (P < 0.01). In conclusion, using economical diets of wheat and barley complement to a corn-soy based diet without multi-enzyme is likely to have adverse effects on growth performance, villus morphology, and gene expression of nutrient transporters in the small intestine.