Abstract
This present study aimed to investigate the effects of rhamnolipids (RLS) on the growth performance, intestinal morphology, immune function, short-chain fatty acid content, and microflora community in broiler chickens challenged with lipopolysaccharides (LPS). A total of 450 broiler chickens were randomly allocated into three groups: basal diet with no supplement (NCO), basal diet with bacitracin (ANT), and basal diet with rhamnolipids (RLS). After 56 d of feeding, 20 healthy broilers were selected from each group, with half being intraperitoneally injected with lipopolysaccharides (LPS) and the other half with normal saline. Treatments with LPS were labelled LPS-NCO, LPS-ANT, and LPS-RLS, whereas treatments with normal saline were labelled NS-NCO, NS-ANT, and NS-RLS. LPS-challenged birds had lower jejunal villus height and higher crypt depth than unchallenged birds. LPS-RLS broilers had increased jejunal villus height and villus height/crypt depth ratio (V/C) but lower crypt depth than LPS-NCO. Dietary supplementation with RLS reduced the LPS-induced immunological stress. Compared with LPS-NCO, birds in LPS-RLS had lower concentrations of IL-1β, IL-6, and TNF-α. In LPS-challenged broilers, RLS and ANT increased the concentrations of IgA, IgM, and IgY compared with LPS-NCO. In LPS treatments, RLS enhanced the contents of acetic acid, butyrate, isobutyric acid, isovalerate, and valerate more than LPS-NCO birds. High-throughput sequencing indicated that RLS supplementation led to changes in the cecal microbial community of broilers. At the species level, Clostridium-sp-Marseille-p3244 was more abundant in NS-RLS than in NS-NCO broilers. In summary, RLS improved the growth performance and relative abundance of cecal microbiota and reduced the LPS-induced immunological stress in broiler chickens.
Highlights
Broilers supplemented with RLS had an improved body weight (BW) and average daily gain (ADG) compared with the control treatment (p < 0.05)
We did not observe any major differences in body weight (BW), average daily gain (ADG), and F:G between RLS- and ANT-treated broilers
We found that the jejunal villus length and villus height/crypt depth ratio (V/C) of normal saline saline (NS)-RLS- and NS-ANT-treated broilers were prominently increased relative to those of control (Figure 1)
Summary
Antibiotics used in feed might cause undesirable consequences to human health, pose a threat to food safety, and constitute an environmental problem [1,4]. RLS showed excellent antimicrobial properties against almost all tested bacteria, including Enterobacter aerogenes, Staphylococcus epidermidis, Mycobacterium, and Arthrobacter [15]. RLS may be added into foods as additives to stabilize the inflatable system, improve the taste and shelf life of starch food, change the rheological properties of flour, bond fat particles, and increase the consistency and taste of fat food. A report from the US Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA, 2004) evaluated the biological safety of rhamnolipids as an additive to poultry feed and exempted the toxicity testing
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