Supplemental Plant Extracts From Flos lonicerae in Combination With Baikal skullcap Attenuate Intestinal Disruption and Modulate Gut Microbiota in Laying Hens Challenged by Salmonella pullorum

Abstract

Dietary inclusions of baicalin and chlorogenic acid were beneficial for intestinal health in pigs. Nevertheless, it is unknown whether these plant-derived products had protection for intestine against bacterial challenge in chickens. This study was aimed at evaluating the potential mitigating effects of plant extracts (PE) from Flos lonicerae combined with Baikal skullcap (the active components are chlorogenic acid and baicalin) on intestinal disruption and dysbacteriosis induced by Salmonella pullorum in laying hens. A total of 216 41-week-old layers were randomly divided into 3 groups (6 replicates per group): negative control (NC), S. pullorum -infected positive control (PC), and the S. pullorum -infected group with supplementation of PE at 1000 mg/kg. All birds except those in NC were challenged with S. pullorum at the end of 4 weeks of the experiment. S. pullorum challenge impaired ( P < 0.05) the production performance (egg production, feed intake, and feed efficiency) of laying hens, increased ( P < 0.05) serum endotoxin content and frequency of Salmonella -positive organs, as well as up-regulated ( P < 0.05) ileal expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines including IFNG , TNFA , IL8 , and IL1B , whereas PE addition reversed ( P < 0.05) these changes and increased ( P < 0.05) ileal IL10 expression. Supplemental PE moderated ileal microbiota dysbiosis in challenged birds, characterized by a reduced abundance of Firmicutes along with increased abundances of Bacteroidetes ( Bacteroides ), Deferribacteres and several butyrate-producers such as Prevotellaceae , Faecalibacterium , Blautia , Butyricicoccus, Lachnoclostridium , and Olsenella , which may assist with energy harvesting and boost anti-inflammatory capacity of host. The decreased abundance of Firmicutes with the increased abundance of Bacteroidetes caused by PE addition had positive correlations with the decreased expression of ileal pro-inflammatory cytokines. The increased abundances of Bacteroidetes ( Bacteroides ) and Prevotellaceae following PE addition were also positively correlated with the improvement of performance (egg production and feed intake) of laying hens. Collectively, supplemental PE from Flos lonicerae in combination with Baikal skullcap alleviated ...

Effects on Intestinal Mucosal Morphology, Productive Parameters and Microbiota Composition after Supplementation with Fermented Defatted Alperujo (FDA) in Laying Hens

“…Finally, we observed that Actinobacteria comprised a significant proportion of the microbiota at the hatchery stage but progressively decrease over time. Our results contrast with other studies in which Actinobacteria was considered a minority phylum, accounting for less than 1% of the total bacterial community [44,49]. In our study, the proportion of Actinobacteria was higher in treated animals, up to 25 weeks-old, compared with the control group.…”

“…Microbiota composition in poultry, especially in laying hens, has become an important area of research in veterinary medicine [27]. Although some studies have focused on microbiota variation in laying hens at different phases [44][45][46][47] and under diverse production systems [47,48], analyses of microbiota in laying hens fed with plant-derived supplements is limited [49,50]. Given the main role of microbiota in fermentation and digestive processes in laying hens [47], we focused on its composition in the cecum in our analyses.…”

Effects of Fermented Soybean Meal Supplementation on the Growth Performance and Cecal Microbiota Community of Broiler Chickens

“…The higher relative abundance of the genus Lachnospiraceae may be a result of decomposition of non-starch polysaccharides in SBM during fermentation, as the products of degraded non-starch polysaccharides can be more easily fermented by members of the genus Lachnospiraceae. The genus Lachnoclostridium —butyric-acid-producing bacteria that have been implicated in the alleviation of gut inflammation—was more abundant in the two dietary treatment groups [ 54 ]. Lactobacillus is known to have a beneficial effect on the gastrointestinal tract and the growth of broilers and is commonly used as probiotics in animal production [ 20 , 42 ].…”

Effects of wheat bran in comparison to antibiotics on growth performance, intestinal immunity, barrier function, and microbial composition in broiler chickens

“…Further linear discriminant analysis coupled with effect size analysis revealed that the abundance of Lachnoclostridium and Butyricicoccus was increased in birds fed WB. Lachnoclostridium and Butyricicoccus were proposed as butyrate producers that could improve feed conversion, inhibit the proliferation of pathogens and alleviate intestinal inflammation ( Eeckhaut et al., 2016 ; Wang et al., 2019 ). Taken together, the WB supplementation improved diversity and composition of cecal microbial communities.…”