Fermented Astragalus in diet improved laying performance, egg quality, antioxidant and immunological status and intestin
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ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Fermented Astragalus in diet improved laying performance, egg quality, antioxidant and immunological status and intestinal microbiota in laying hens Hong‑Tao Shi1,2†, Bai‑Yu Wang3†, Chuan‑Zhou Bian1, Ying‑Qian Han3* and Hong‑Xing Qiao1*
Abstract In the era of increased antibiotic resistance and ever-stricter control on antibiotic use, it is urgent to develop green, safe, and non-residue alternatives to antibiotics applied to the poultry industry. To this end, we supplied the potential Lactobacillus plantarum (L. plantarum) fermented Astragalus in the diet of laying hens, with a final addition of 3‰. Its effects have been assessed on laying performance, egg quality, antioxidant and immunological status, and intestinal microbiota, and are compared to the control group, to the Astragalus group containing 3‰ unfermented Astragalus, and to the L. plantarum group containing 2% L. plantarum [5 × 108 colony-forming unit (CFU) per milliliter (mL)]. Dur‑ ing the second half of the experimental period (15 to 28 days), the egg production rate was considerably higher in the fermented Astragalus group than that in the other groups, with the fermented Astragalus group having the lowest feed conversion ratio. No significant difference (P > 0.05) was noted among treatments on egg quality. Fermented Astragalus-treated hens exhibited significantly increased catalase (CAT), glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px), superoxide dismutase (SOD) and total antioxidant capacity (T-AOC) in serum, and reduced malondialdehyde (MDA) in serum. Furthermore, fermented Astragalus supplementation resulted in a significant increase in ileal microbiota abundance relative to control. In conclusion, feeding laying hens with L. plantarum fermented Astragalus has beneficial effects on production, antioxidant potential, immunity, and ileal microbiota. L. plantarum fermented Astragalus is expected to be a novel feed additive used in poultry production. Keywords: Fermented astragalus, Laying hens, Egg quality, Antioxidant and immunological status, 16S rRNA, Intestinal microbiota Introduction Eggs are one of the most crucial sources of animal protein and nutritional content in human diets. Due to the widespread use of antibiotics in poultry, drug residues in eggs have been gaining worldwide concern over the *Correspondence: [email protected]; [email protected] † Hong-Tao Shi and Bai-Yu Wang contributed equally to this work 1 College of Veterinary Medicine, Henan University of Animal Husbandry and Economy, Zhengzhou 450046, Henan, China 3 College of Animal Sciences and Veterinary Medicine, Henan Agricultural University, Zhengzhou 450046, Henan, China Full list of author information is available at the end of the article
past few years (Vandemaele et al. 2002). In addition, antibiotic abuse has led to intestinal dysbacteriosis, diarrhea, immunocompromised state (Willing et al. 2011). Thus, it is imperative to develop green, safe, and non-residue alternatives to antibiotics applied to the poultry industry. Traditional Chinese herbal medicines
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