Effects of dietary vitamins supplementation level on the production performance and intestinal microbiota of aged laying hens

Abstract

The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of higher vitamins supplementation level on the performance, immunity, and intestinal microbiota of old laying hens. Twelve birds were randomly chosen from 312 healthy, 65-wk-old Hy-Line Brown layers for sampling after a 7-wk acclimation period. The remaining 300 hens were randomly allocated to 1 of 4 dietary treatments for a 13-wk feeding trial: basal diet ( CON ), basal diet with 2-fold supplementation level of lipid-soluble vitamins ( LV ), 2-fold supplementation level of water-soluble vitamins ( WV ), or 2-fold supplementation level of both lipid-soluble and water-soluble vitamins ( BV ), respectively. Compared with 72-wk-old laying hens, the 85-wk-old laying hens showed declined egg quality, which implied by inferior eggshell strength and yolk color ( P < 0.05). However, after 13 wks feeding trial, the birds in WV group had higher yellowness of yolk color, and LV group had increased laying rate ( P < 0.05) compared with CON. Meanwhile, WV and/or BV groups showed improved GSH/GSSG levels in liver and increased secretory immunoglobulin A concentrations in jejunum compared with CON ( P < 0.05). In addition, higher dietary vitamin supplementation levels significantly altered the composition of intestinal microbiota, as evidenced by increased abundance of ileal Lactobacillus , whereas reduced richness of ileal Romboutsia , Turicibacter , and cecal Faecalibacterium ( P < 0.05) in WV group and increased cecal Megasphaera and Phascolarctobacterium ( P < 0.05) in LV group compared with CON group. In conclusion, higher vitamin supplementation levels in the diet could improve laying performance and egg quality of aged hens, which was closely correlated with the increased abundance of beneficial microbiota in the intestine.

Different Non-cage Housing Systems Alter Duodenal and Cecal Microbiota Composition in Shendan Chickens

“…Phascolarctobacterium has been reported to play an important role in the metabolic pathways of chickens, complementing the absence of carbohydrate metabolism by an increase in lipid metabolism, with methylmalonyl-CoA mutase and methylmalonyl-CoA carboxyltransferase being the most abundant lipid metabolism proteins (37). Phascolarctobacterium was significantly positively correlated with eggshell strength, which is similar to the results of Gan et al (38), who found that cecal Phascolarctobacterium was correlated with the production performance and egg quality of aged laying hens. The existence of Phascolarctobacterium in the cecum may be related to the deposition of calcium and magnesium in the uterus (shell gland) of the oviduct.…”

Effects of dietary glucose oxidase on growth performance and intestinal health of AA broilers challenged by Clostridium perfringens

“…Romboutsia is a short-chain fatty acid-producing bacterium, positively correlated with indicators of body weight and serum lipids. Previous study also showed that Romboutsia was positive related to FCR of laying hens ( Gan et al, 2020 ). Veillonella was a potential pathobionts, which was associated with autoimmune hepatitis and oral diseases and already proved by previous studies ( Luo et al, 2020 ; Wei et al, 2020 ).…”

Role of Food Antioxidants in Modulating Gut Microbial Communities: Novel Understandings in Intestinal Oxidative Stress Damage and Their Impact on Host Health

“…Greater dietary vitamins content contributed to enhanced antioxidant ability, immunity, as well as improved composition of gut microbiota, referring to increased beneficial bacteria abundance, in particular Lactobacillus in the ileum along with Megamonas and Phascolarctobacterium in the cecum. Higher dietary vitamins supplementation was a feasible nutritional strategy to improve the health and production performance of aged laying hens [146]. Hence, it was concluded that the vitamins play an important role in host physiology, therefore our focus will be on antioxidant vitamins.…”