Dietary Tributyrin Administration Improves Intestinal Morphology and Selected Bacterial and Short-Chain Fatty Acid Profiles in Broilers Under an Isocaloric Feeding Regime

Abstract

The current study was conducted to investigate the effect of dietary tributyrin (TB) administration on the intestinal and growth performances in Arbor Acres (AA) broilers under an isocaloric feeding regime. A total of 540 day-old healthy AA broilers were randomly assigned to five treatments with 12 replicates (pens) per treatment and nine birds per pen for 42 days. The dietary treatments were basal diet (control) and basal diet with TB at doses of 0.23 g/kg (TB1), 0.46 g/kg (TB2), 0.92 g/kg (TB3), and 1.84 g/kg (TB4). Particularly, to achieve the isocaloric and cost-saving experimental diets, soybean oil was replaced by the TB product (Eucalorie®) with equivalent metabolic energy contents, and the formulas were rebalanced with zeolite to get the sum of all the feed ingredients to 100%. On days 21 and 42, after weighing, the birds (one bird per replicate) whose body weight was close to the replicate average were euthanized to investigate the effect of dietary TB on intestinal morphology, intestinal bacterial population, and short-chain fatty acid contents. The results revealed that dietary TB administration increased the average daily gain, gain/feed ratio, and European broiler index (P < 0.05) and improved the intestinal morphology (P < 0.05) as indicated by higher villus height and the ratios of villus height/crypt depth in broilers. The incremental levels of TB increased the ileal Lactobacillus content (P = 0.05) and cecal Bacillus content (P = 0.02), respectively. Moreover, dietary TB administration also increased the contents of most of the selected short-chain fatty acids in ileal and cecal digesta (P < 0.05). Collectively, dietary TB administration quadratically improved the growth performance, intestinal morphology, beneficial bacterial population, and short-chain fatty acid levels under the isocaloric feeding regime, indicating better profit return potential in practical poultry operation.

Review: Effect of Experimental Diets on the Microbiome of Productive Animals

“…In this regard, short-chain fatty acids such as butyrate, whose active element is butyric acid, have been shown to help improve intestinal health by regulating proteins present in the mucosa [ 111 ]. Butyric acid can be found in salt form as sodium butyrate or as a triglyceride called tributyrin, both of which are used in humans and animals as prodrugs [ 112 ]. A work by Sun et al (2020) sought to apply sodium butyrate in the diet of pigs using pigs from Yorkshire-Landrace × Duroc boar crosses.…”

Effects of Dietary Tributyrin on Growth Performance, Biochemical Indices, and Intestinal Microbiota of Yellow-Feathered Broilers

“…However, the efficacy of tributyrin as a growth promoter remains a matter of debate. It has been reported that dietary tributyrin administration at 1840 mg/kg increased the ADG, FCR and beneficial bacterial population in Arbor Acres (AA) broiler chickens under an isocaloric feeding regime [ 33 ]. Moreover, diets with a 0.2% mixture of butyric acid glycerides (mono-, di- and tri-glycerides) increased live weight at slaughtering and FCR of Ross 308 female chickens [ 34 ].…”

Dietary tributyrin intervention improves the carcass traits, organ indices, and blood biomarker profiles in broilers under the isocaloric diets administration

“…The TB product (Eucalorie) contained 92% TB and was kindly contributed by Hubei Horwath Biotechnology Co., Ltd., Wuhan, Hubei, China. The metabolizable energy value of the Eucalorie product is 8 Mcal/kg for broilers ( Hu et al, 2021 ).…”