AUTHOR=Li Zhen , Long Lingbo , Jin Xu , Li Yang , Wu Qiong , Chen Xingyong , Geng Zhaoyu , Zhang Cheng 

TITLE=Effects of Clostridium butyricum on growth performance, meat quality, and intestinal health of broilers

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Veterinary Science

VOLUME=10

YEAR=2023

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/veterinary-science/articles/10.3389/fvets.2023.1107798

DOI=10.3389/fvets.2023.1107798

ISSN=2297-1769

ABSTRACT=<p>This study investigated the effects of <italic>Clostridium butyricum</italic> on the growth performance, meat quality and intestinal health of broilers. A total of 800 one-day-old male Arbor Acres broilers were randomly assigned to two groups with 16 replicates of 25 broilers per group and fed with a basal diet (CON) or a basal diet supplemented with 1.5 × 10<sup>9</sup> cfu/kg <italic>C. butyricum</italic> and 5 × 10<sup>8</sup> cfu/kg <italic>C. butyricum</italic> at 1–21 d and 22–42 d, respectively (CB). The results indicated that <italic>C. butyricum</italic> significantly increased the final body weight, average daily gain at 1–42 d in the growth performance of broilers (<italic>P</italic> &lt; 0.05). Moreover, <italic>C. butyricum</italic> significantly increased <inline-formula><mml:math id="M1" xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><mml:msubsup><mml:mrow><mml:mtext>a</mml:mtext></mml:mrow><mml:mrow><mml:mn>24</mml:mn><mml:mtext>h</mml:mtext></mml:mrow><mml:mrow><mml:mo>*</mml:mo></mml:mrow></mml:msubsup></mml:math></inline-formula> value and pH<sub>24h</sub> value of breast meat but reduced the drip loss and shear force (<italic>P</italic> &lt; 0.05). Regarding serum antioxidant indices, <italic>C. butyricum</italic> significantly increased the total superoxide dismutase (T-SOD) and total antioxidative capacity activities and reduced the malondialdehyde content (<italic>P</italic> &lt; 0.05). Furthermore, the broilers in the CB demonstrated an increase in jejunal lipase and trypsin activities, villus height (VH) and VH-to-crypt depth ratio at 42 d compared with those in the CON (<italic>P</italic> &lt; 0.05). <italic>C. butyricum</italic> also upregulated the intestinal mRNA levels of zonula occludens-1, nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2 <italic>(Nrf2</italic>), <italic>SOD1</italic> and interleukin-10 in the jejunal mucosa (<italic>P</italic> &lt; 0.05), but it downregulated the mRNA levels of nuclear factor kappa B (<italic>NF-</italic>κ<italic>B</italic>) and tumor necrosis factor-α (<italic>P</italic> &lt; 0.05). These results indicate that <italic>C. butyricum</italic> can improve the growth performance and meat quality of broilers. In particular, <italic>C. butyricum</italic> can improve the intestinal health of broilers, which is likely to be related to the activation of the Nrf2 signaling pathway and inhibition of the NF-κB signaling pathway.</p>