Effect of Dietary Clostridium butyricum Supplementation on Growth Performance, Intestinal Barrier Function, Immune Function, and Microbiota Diversity of Pekin Ducks

Abstract

Clostridium butyricum (C. butyricum) is increasingly being used to test the promotion of the gut health of animals. However, the modes of action for such applications for waterfowl remain unclear. Thus, we investigated whether or not intestinal barrier function, immune-related gene expression, and the diversity of the intestinal microbiota in Pekin ducks varied under C. butyricum supplementation. A total of 500 ducks were randomly assigned into five treatments supplemented with basal diets containing: either 0 (group Control), 200 (group CB200), 400 (group CB400) and 600 (group CB600) mg/kg C. butyricum or 150 mg/kg aureomycin (group A150) for 42 days. In comparison with the control group, C. butyricum supplementation enhanced the growth performance and intestinal villus height of Pekin ducks at 42 d. Serum immune indexes and fecal short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) were all improved at both 21 d and 42 d after C. butyricum addition. The mRNA expression levels of Mucin2, Zonula occludens-1 (ZO-1), Caudin-3, and Occludin increased at 21 d and 42 d and the mRNA expression levels of IL-4 and IL-10 only increased at 42 d after C. butyricum addition. Dietary C. butyricum also resulted in an increase in the number of diversities of operational taxonomic units (OTUs), and an increase in the α-diversity of intestinal microbiota. The addition of C. butyricum altered the composition of the intestinal microbiota from 21 d to 42 d. The relative abundance of Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes showed little changes among groups; however, the relative abundance of Firmicutes/Bacteroidetes were found to have been significantly different between the 21 d and 42 d. C. butyricum administration improved the intestinal health of Pekin ducks by increasing the diversity of intestinal microbiota, enhancing the SCFAs contents, and strengthening the intestinal barrier function and immune systems. The optimal dietary supplementation dosage was recommended as 400 mg/kg in the diet.

Effects of Clostridium butyricum as an Antibiotic Alternative on Growth Performance, Intestinal Morphology, Serum Biochemical Response, and Immunity of Broilers

“…However, in the present study, no significant differences were observed in some production performance parameters among the C. butyricum- supplemented groups. Similar to our study, supplementing feed with C. butyricum produced no significant differences in the growth performance of broilers over the whole trial period and Pekin ducks for the starter phase [ 37 , 38 ]. The plausible reasons are that the probiotic strains, dosage, or animals’ bioavailability affect their beneficial efficacy, suggesting a need for more studies on utilizing C. butyricum better.…”

“…In addition, we noticed that the crypt depth in the antibiotic group (AM) was higher than in the 2 × 10 8 CFU/kg of C. butyricum -supplemented group at day 21 and in the 4 × 10 8 CFU/kg of C. butyricum -supplemented group at day 39. Similar manifestations were reported in the Pekin ducks and broilers, demonstrating that supplementing aureomycin into the feed has little contribution to the villus height and crypt depth in animals [ 37 , 45 ]. This study and ours collectively revealed that, regardless of whether antibiotics have a beneficial effect on intestinal morphology, hosts should be administered at the proper dosage and provided with an adequate enteral environment.…”

Identification and Characterization of a Potential Probiotic, Clostridium butyricum G13, Isolated from the Intestine of the Mud Crab (Scylla paramamosain)

“…C. butyricum supplementation can modify the balance of the intestinal microbiota in aquatic animals ( 47 , 48 ). The results of this study revealed that C. butyricum G13 had significant impacts on the structure of the intestinal microbiota of mud crabs based on the alpha diversity parameters and PCoA.…”

Modulation of the immune system of chickens a key factor in maintaining poultry production—a review

“…Higher diversity of intestinal microbiota and changes in the secretion of some immunoglobulins and cytokines under Clostridium butyricum ( Liu et al, 2021 ). Probiotics also had a positive effect on the immune system of laying hens by increasing immunoglobulin M ( Bacillus subtilis ) ( Fathi et al, 2018 ), antibody titers against sheep red blood cells ( SRBC ), and proliferation of T and B lymphocytes ( Alaqil et al, 2020 ), and antibodies against ND ( L. acidophilus ) ( Forte et al, 2016 ).…”