Injection of Raffinose Family Oligosaccharides at 12 Days of Egg Incubation Modulates the Gut Development and Resistance to Opportunistic Pathogens in Broiler Chickens

Abstract

The aim was to investigate the impact of an automatic in ovo injection of the raffinose family oligosaccharides (RFO) extracted from the seeds of Lupinus luteus L, on the chicken performance and resistance in a production environment. At day 12 of incubation, a total of 57,900 eggs (Ross 308) were divided into two groups: 1/ Control, injected with 0.9% NaCl and 2/ RFO group, injected with 1.9 mg/egg of the lupin seed extract, dissolved in 0.2 mL NaCl. The performance parameters, biochemical indices (lipid profile, hepatic parameters), gut histomorphology and duodenum structure, oxidative stability of the meat and microbiological counts of the major commensal microbiota species were analyzed. Mortality, body weight, and feed conversion ratio (FCR) were not affected. By day 42, several health indices were improved with RFO and were reflected in a beneficial lipid blood profile, increased villi surface and better combating opportunistic pathogens through reduction of Clostridia and decreased coccidia counts. The RFO increased meat oxidation, but only at the beginning of the storage. The RFO sourced from local legumes can be considered a promising prebiotic for broiler chickens. In ovo delivery of prebiotics and/or synbiotics should be further optimized as an important strategy for the earliest possible modulation of chicken resistance.

In ovo Feeding as a Tool for Improving Performance and Gut Health of Poultry: A Review

“…In this study, RFO showed a dose-dependent effect in increasing the number of Bifidobacterium bifidum and Lactobacillus acidophilus (44). In other studies, RFO extracted from the seeds of Lupinus luteus L when injected in ovo (1.9 mg/egg) did not affect the body weight and FCR but increased meat oxidation and reduced the opportunistic pathogens (Clostridia) and coccidia (46), and reduced the hatchability (44). On the contrary, IOI of RFO purified from the seeds of Lupinus luteus L increased the BW and FCR in Cobb, Ross, and Hubbard broilers (44).…”

The Role of Nutraceuticals and Phytonutrients in Chickens’ Gastrointestinal Diseases

“…In ovo injection at 12 days of incubation of a raffinose family oligosaccharides (RFO) extracted from Lupinus luteus seeds permitted a 2.5 log reduction in C. perfringens count and an 89% reduction in Eimeria spp. oocysts shedding [ 198 ].…”

Chicken embryo as a model in epigenetic research

“…Our many years of research shows the same trend for in ovo stimulation of the chicken embryo microbiome and its long-term postembryonic effect ( Siwek et al., 2018 ). It was shown that in ovo administration of bioactive substances such as prebiotics or synbiotics on the 12th day of chicken embryo incubation directly affected the microbiota composition ( Villaluenga et al., 2004 ; Pilarski et al., 2005 ; Bednarczyk et al., 2011 , 2016 ; Dunislawska et al., 2017 ) and indirectly improved physiological ( Brudnicki et al., 2015 ; Pruszynska-Oszmalek et al., 2015 ; Miśta et al., 2017 ; Kolodziejski et al., 2018 ; Stadnicka et al., 2020 ; Zhang et al., 2020 ), immunological ( Madej et al., 2015 ; Madej and Bednarczyk, 2016 ; Stefaniak et al., 2019 , 2020 ), and intestinal development ( Bogucka et al., 2016 , 2017 ; Sobolewska et al., 2017 ) and the performance traits of chickens ( Bednarczyk et al., 2016 ; Maiorano et al., 2017 ; Tavaniello et al., 2019 , 2020 ).…”