The principal purpose of this research was to study the effects of glycerol monolaurate (GML) on the production performance; egg quality; health state of the oviduct, ovary and ileum; and gut microbiota of laying hens in the later stage. The laying hens were randomly assigned to two groups: a control group and an experiment group, for which 1000 mg/kg of GML was added to a control diet. The results showed that GML increased the laying rate, average egg weight, albumen height, yolk color and Haugh unit and decreased the feed conversion ratio and defective eggs (p < 0.05). GML increased the intestinal villi height and the ratio of villus height to crypt depth (p < 0.05). Moreover, GML improved the contents of cytokines in the oviduct, ovary and ileum mucosa; ameliorated the expression of TLR2, TLR4, MyD88, IL-4, IL-1β and TNF-α; and increased the expression of Occludin and Muc-2 in the ileal mucosa. The supplementation of GML increased the volatile fatty acids in the cecal contents, such as acetic acid and propionic acid, and up-regulated Bacteroides (p < 0.01) and Alistipes (p < 0.05) richness in the cecal contents. In summary, GML improved production performance, egg quality and immunity; ameliorated the health status of the oviduct, ovary and ileum; enhanced the intestinal barrier function; improved the content of intestinal volatile fatty acids; and regulated the abundance of cecal flora.
This study was conducted to survey the effects of garlic powder on growth performance, nonspecific immunity, antioxidant capacity, and intestinal flora structure of Chinese mitten crabs. Altogether, 216 crabs which originally weigh 20.71 ± 0.13 g were randomly allocated into three treatment groups with 6 replicates of 12 crabs per replicate. The control group (CN) was fed a basal diet, while the other two groups were fed the basal diet supplemented with 1000 mg/kg (GP1000) and 2000 mg/kg (GP2000) garlic powder, respectively. This trial lasted 8 weeks. The results showed that the supplementation of garlic powder improved the final body weight, weight gain rate, and specific growth rate of the crabs ( P < 0.05 ). Meanwhile, in serum, better nonspecific immune was confirmed by the enhancement of phenoloxidase and lysozyme levels, with the improvement of phosphatase activities in GP1000 and GP2000 ( P < 0.05 ). On the other hand, the levels of total antioxidant capacity, glutathione peroxidases, and total superoxide dismutase in serum and hepatopancreas were increased ( P < 0.05 ) while malondialdehyde content declined ( P < 0.05 ) as the garlic powder was added to the basal diet. And, catalase in serum also shows an increase ( P < 0.05 ). In both GP1000 and GP2000, genes related to antioxidant and immunity, for instance, Toll-like receptor 1, glutathione peroxidase, catalase, myeloid differentiation factor 88, TuBe, Dif, relish, crustins, antilipopolysaccharide factor, lysozyme, and prophenoloxidase mRNA expression levels, were increased ( P < 0.05 ). The abundance of Rhizobium and Rhodobacter was reduced by adding garlic powder ( P < 0.05 ). This study indicated that dietary addition of garlic powder promoted growth, enhanced nonspecific immunity and antioxidant capacity, activated Toll pathway, IMD pathway, and proPO system, increased antimicrobial peptide expression, while simultaneously improving the intestinal flora of Chinese mitten crabs.
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