Essential oils are widely used in the pharmaceutical, food and cosmetic industries, and many plant essential oils have shown that they have positive effects on broilers nutrition. This experiment was conducted to study the effects of orally administered different dosages of carvacrol essential oils on intestinal barrier function in broiler chickens. A total of eighty 28-day-old (1.28 ± 0.15 kg) ROSS 308 broilers were randomly allocated to four groups of 20 replicates each, with one chicken per replicate per cage, and all were fed with the same diet. Four experimental groups were orally administered 0, 200, 300 or 400 μl carvacrol essential oils at 18:00 hr every day during the 2-week experimental period. As a result of which, the gene expression of the occludin, claudin-1, claudin-5, ZO-1 and ZO-2 in intestinal mucosa of small intestine (p < 0.05) and the goblet cell content in small intestine epithelium (p < 0.05) were significantly increased; test subjects with 300 or 400 μl carvacrol essential oils reduced the microbial counts of Salmonella spp. and Escherichia coli in the intestines (p < 0.05); Essential oils administration also significantly increased activity of the sucrase (p < 0.05) and lactase (p < 0.05) in intestinal mucosa. In conclusion, the carvacrol essential oils have positive effects on growth performance and intestinal barriers function of broilers; those effects may be related to the dosage, as administration of 300 or 400 μl was more effective than that of 200 μl.

A total of 90 pigs (6.47 ± 0.27 kg; 21 d of age) were used in this 22 wk feeding trial to evaluate the effect of microencapsulated complex of organic acids and essential oils (MOE) on growth performance, nutrient retention, blood profile, fecal microflora, and lean meat percentage in pigs. Pigs were randomly distributed to one of three treatment groups (six replicate pens per treatment, five pigs per pen). Dietary treatments were CON, basal diet; MOE1, basal + 0.1% MOE; and MOE2, basal diet + 0.2% MOE. The average daily gain, average daily feed intake, and feed efficiency ratio were significantly different among treatments (P < 0.05). The apparent total tract digestibility of dry matter was linearly increased (P < 0.05) by MOE2. Red blood cells and immunoglobulin G were significantly different in pigs fed MOE (P < 0.05). The Lactobacillus concentration linearly increased (P < 0.05) in MOE2 treatments compared with other treatments. The meat color (a*, redness) and drip loss decreased linearly (P < 0.05) with increasing level of MOE. In conclusion, MOE supplementation could improve growth performance, nutrient retention, blood profile, fecal microflora, and meat quality in weaning to finishing pigs.

The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of stimbiotic (STB), a xylanase and xylo-oligosaccharide complex. A total of 36 male weaned pigs with initial body weights of 8.49 ± 0.10 kg were used in a 3-week experiment. The experiment was conducted in a 2 × 3 factorial arrangement (six replicates/treatment) of treatments consisting of two levels of challenge (challenge and non-challenge) and three levels of STB (0, 0.5, and 1 g/kg diet). Supplementations STB 0.5 g/kg (STB5) and STB 1 g/kg (STB10) improved the G:F (p = 0.04) in piglets challenged with STEC. STB supplementation, which also decreased (p < 0.05) the white blood cells, neutrophils, lymphocytes, and expression levels of tumor necrosis factor-alpha and interleukin-6. Supplementations STB5 and STB10 improved (p < 0.01) the lymphocytes and neutrophils in piglets challenged with STEC on 14 dpi. Additionally, supplementations STB5 and STB10 improved (p < 0.01) the tumor necrosis factor-alpha in piglets challenged with STEC on 3 dpi. Supplementations STB5 and STB10 also improved the villus height-to-crypt depth ratio (p < 0.01) in piglets challenged with STEC. Supplementation with STB reduced (p < 0.05) the expression levels of calprotectin. In conclusion, STB could alleviate a decrease of the performance, immune response, and inflammatory response induced by the STEC challenge.

A total of eighty 21-day-olds (1.1±0.01kg) ROSS 308 broilers were randomly allocated into 4 groups, with 20 replicates per group and 1 chicken per replicate per cage. Three experimental groups (CAR, THY, ORE group) were given oral administration of 200ìL essential oils (carvacrol, thyme and oregano) at 18:00h every day. The results showed no significant differences on blood metabolites among each group (P>0.05). The villus height of the small intestines in the CAR group increased significantly (P less than 0.05) from 1360.10 to 1552.54ìm as compared to the control group, the goblet cell counts in the THY and ORE groups significantly increased by 20.91% (P less than 0.05) and 31.82% (P less than 0.05), respectively, compared to the control group. The E.coli and Salmonella in ORE group significantly decreased by 11.16% (P less than 0.05) and 9.54% (P less than 0.05), respectively, compared to the control group. The Redness (a*) values of the muscles of the CAR and ORE groups were observed to increase significantly (P less than 0.05) from 3.58 to 7.95 and 6.86, respectively, compared to the control group. In conclusion, oral administration of the essential oils carvacrol, thyme, and oregano promoted intestinal development, improved the intestinal environment and the meat quality of broilers.

The objective of this experiment was to determine the effects of a pure reduction in the dietary crude protein (CP) and metabolic energy (ME) contents on growth performance, nutrient digestibility, blood profile, faecal microflora and odour gas emission in weaned pigs. A total of 80 weaned piglets ((Landrace × Yorkshire) × Duroc) with a mean initial bodyweight (BW) of 6.8 ± 0.5 kg were randomly allotted to four treatments with four replicate pens of five piglets per pen (based on average BW) for 45 days. The dietary treatments consisted of i) CON: basal diet; ii) LME: reduction of 10% of ME in basal diet; iii) LCP: reduction of 10% of CP in basal diet; iv) MECP: reduction of 10% of CP and 10% of ME in basal diet. During the experimental period, average daily feed intake (ADFI) improved in piglets fed the LME and LCP diets, compared with those fed the CON diets. Average daily gain (ADG) and gain to feed (G : F) ratio decreased in piglets fed LCP, LME, and MECP diet, when compared with those fed the CON diet. However, during the total experimental period, ADG and G : F ratio were not affected by dietary treatment. With regard to nutrient digestibility, apparent total track digestibility (ATTD) of CP was not affected by experimental diets. The concentration of blood urea nitrogen (BUN) in blood decreased more in piglets fed LME, LCP, and MECP than those fed the CON diet. The emissions of ammonia (NH 3 ), hydrogen sufide (H 2 S), and volatile fatty acids (VFAs) were lower in piglets fed LME, LCP, and MECP diet than those fed the CON diet. In conclusion, these results indicate that reduction in dietary CP and ME content did not decrease growth performance and nutrient digestibility, and they increased positive effects such as BUN and gas emission reduction.