AUTHOR=Wen Jiashu , Zhao Wenyan , Li Jiankui , Hu Caihong , Zou Xiaoting , Dong Xinyang 

TITLE=Dietary Supplementation of Chitosan Oligosaccharide–Clostridium butyricum Synbiotic Relieved Early-Weaned Stress by Improving Intestinal Health on Pigeon Squabs (Columba livia)

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Immunology

VOLUME=13

YEAR=2022

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/immunology/articles/10.3389/fimmu.2022.926162

DOI=10.3389/fimmu.2022.926162

ISSN=1664-3224

ABSTRACT=<p>According to a previous study, we had found that early weaning causes harm to growth performance, intestinal morphology, activity of digestive enzymes, and antioxidant status in pigeon squabs (<italic>Columba livia</italic>). Chitosan oligosaccharides (COS) and <italic>Clostridium butyricum</italic> have been reported to have great potential to improve the growth performance and intestinal health of early-weaned animals. Therefore, the aim of this study is to explore whether dietary supplementation with COS-<italic>C. butyricum</italic> synbiotic could relieve early-weaned stress by evaluating its effects on growth performance and intestinal health in pigeon squabs. A total of 160 squabs (weaned at 7 days of age) were randomly divided into 5 groups: the control group, fed with artificial crop milk; the COS supplementation group, fed with artificial crop milk + 150 mg/kg COS; and three synbiotic supplementation groups, fed with artificial crop milk + 150 mg/kg COS + 200, 300, and 400 mg/kg <italic>C. butyricum</italic>. The results showed that a diet supplemented with COS-<italic>C. butyricum</italic> synbiotic benefitted the growth performance of early-weaned squabs; even so the differences were not significant among the five groups (<italic>p</italic> &gt; 0.05). In addition, dietary supplementation of 150 mg/kg COS + 300~400 mg/kg <italic>C. butyricum</italic> significantly improved the intestinal morphology (especially villus surface area and the ratio of villus height to crypt depth), the activity of digestive enzymes (lipase, trypsin, and leucine aminopeptidase) in duodenum contents, and the production of total short-chain fatty acids and acetic acid in ileum content (<italic>p</italic> &lt; 0.05). Additionally, dietary supplementation of 150 mg/kg COS + 400 mg/kg <italic>C. butyricum</italic> benefitted gut health by improving the antioxidant capacity (glutathione peroxidase and total antioxidant capacity) and cytokine status (IL-4 and IL-10) (<italic>p</italic> &lt; 0.05), as well as by improving the intestinal microbiota diversity. In conclusion, our results revealed that dietary supplementation with synbiotic (150 mg/kg COS + 300~400 mg/kg <italic>C. butyricum</italic>) could relieve early-weaned stress by maintaining intestinal health in pigeon squabs.</p>