Abstract
The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of replacing antibiotics with Kudzu-leaf flavonoids (KLF) on the growth performances, gut epithelial development, and gastrointestinal bacteria diversities of Yellow-feathered broilers. For this purpose, total of 216 1-day-old male Yellow-feathered chickens with the similar birth weight (31.0 ± 1.0 g) were randomly divided into 3 treatments: the control treatment (CON), the kudzu-leaf flavonoids supplement treatment (KLF), and the antibiotics supplement treatment (AGP). All birds were provided with a 56 d-feeding procedure, followed by the measurement of production performances, immune organs, blood anti-oxidant parameters, intestine epithelium development, and cecal microbiota. Results showed the feed conversion ratio significantly decreased after KLF supplement compared with CON (P < 0.05). KLF supplement partly promoted the anti-oxidant capacity on account of the increased activity of Superoxide dismutase (SOD) and the decrease content of malondialdehyde (MDA). Further, as referred to the gastrointestinal development and bacteria, ratio of villus/crypt significantly increased of ileum in KLF treatment (P < 0.05) while a significant promition of bacterial diversity and partial representative probiotic bacteria (P < 0.05) after KLF supplementation. Moreover, correlation analysis indicated that probitics including Bifidobacterium, Butyricimonas, Lactobacillus and Streptococcus positively correlated with production performances. In conclusion, KLF supplement may promote feed efficiency and benefit the gastrointestinal health through improving gut bacterial diversity and probiotic bacteria. The KLF might be applied as a proper antibiotic alternative.
Highlights
The feed antibiotics were popularly used in the poultry industry to maintain animal health and improve growth performance
Effects of kudzu‐leaf flavonoids supplement on growth performances, immune organs indexes, and serum immune globulin content The differential analysis of kudzu-leaf flavonoids supplement treatment (KLF) supplement on growth performances were first evaluated including average daily feed intake (ADFI), body weight gain (BWG), average daily gain (ADG), feed conversion ratio (FCR)
No significant differences were observed of BWG, ADG and ADFI among the three treatments, chickens in control treatment (CON) treatment ate the most during the feeding phase
Summary
The feed antibiotics were popularly used in the poultry industry to maintain animal health and improve growth performance. Flavonoids, which was mainly extracted in plant leaves, drew great attention in antibiotic alternative investigation on account of their broad-spectrum antimicrobial. Proper amount of flavonoids supplement to the feeding diet improved the growth performances of broilers. Whether flavonoids supplement affected the gut epithelial development, and the interactive effects between bacteria and intestine on the growth performance are still unclear. In the present study, flavonoid extracted from Kudzu-leaf was applied to investigate the effects on growth performance, gut epithelial development, and cecal bacteria of Yellow-feathered broilers. We hypothesized that flavonoid may improve gastrointestinal bacteria community and intestinal epithelium development to promote the growth of broilers
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