Department of Animal and Poultry Nutrition, Faculty of Animal Science, Gorgan University of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources, Gorgan, Iran.
Genetics and Animal Breeding, Department of Animal Science, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran.
J Anim Physiol Anim Nutr (Berl). 2020 May;104(3):886-897. doi: 10.1111/jpn.13323. Epub 2020 Feb 18.
This experiment was conducted to evaluate the effects of dietary supplementation of whey powder (WP), Bacillus subtilis (BAS), and their combination (MIX) on growth performance, intestinal morphology, caecal microflora, hepatic gene expression, blood metabolites, and skeletal muscle antioxidant capacity in Japanese quails. A total of 400 one-day-old Japanese quails were randomly distributed to 20-floor pens (4 dietary treatments, 5 replications per treatment, 20 birds per pen). The birds were fed a basal diet (control, CON) or the basal diet supplemented with 40 g/kg WP, 1 g/kg BAS probiotic or 40 g/kg WP plus 1 g/kg BAS probiotic for five weeks. Feed intake was not affected by the treatments at any stage of the trial. However, the WP, BAS, and MIX feed had better weight gain and feed conversion ratio compared to the CON during the entire production period (day 1-35; p < .05). Feeding the WP, BAS, and MIX diets caused no significant difference in morphometric measures in the duodenum, jejunum, and ileum other than the villus height to crypt depth ratio in the ileum (p < .05). The expression of insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) and growth hormone genes was highly upregulated in the liver of the birds fed the MIX diet (p < .05). Feeding birds with the diets containing WP, BAS, and MIX increased the population of caecal lactic acid bacteria and reduced serum cholesterol concentration compared to the CON diet (p < .05). Likewise, the tested feed additives increased superoxide dismutase and glutathione peroxidase enzyme activities in the thigh muscle (p < .05). No synergistic effect was found between WP and BAS in studied parameters other than IGF-1 gene expression. Improved growth performance of Japanese quails by feeding the WP, BAS, and the MIX feed could be linked to improved absorptive capacity of the small intestine as well as over-expression of anabolic growth factors. In conclusion, WP with or without BAS could be considered as a beneficial dietary supplement to enhance productive performance, gut functionality, and antioxidant capacity of Japanese quail.
本实验旨在评估乳清粉（WP）、枯草芽孢杆菌（BAS）及其组合（MIX）对日粮添加对鹌鹑生长性能、肠道形态、盲肠微生物区系、肝脏基因表达、血液代谢物和骨骼肌抗氧化能力的影响。将 400 只 1 日龄鹌鹑随机分配到 20 个笼位（4 种日粮处理，每个处理 5 个重复，每个笼位 20 只）。鹌鹑饲喂基础日粮（对照，CON）或基础日粮添加 40 g/kg WP、1 g/kg BAS 益生菌或 40 g/kg WP 加 1 g/kg BAS 益生菌，为期 5 周。试验各阶段，日粮处理对采食量均无影响。然而，WP、BAS 和 MIX 日粮在整个生产期（1-35 日龄；p<0.05）的增重和饲料转化率均优于 CON。除回肠隐窝深度与绒毛高度比外，WP、BAS 和 MIX 日粮对十二指肠、空肠和回肠的形态计量学指标无显著影响（p<0.05）。MIX 日粮饲喂的鹌鹑肝脏胰岛素样生长因子-1（IGF-1）和生长激素基因表达水平显著上调（p<0.05）。与 CON 日粮相比，饲喂 WP、BAS 和 MIX 日粮的鹌鹑盲肠乳酸杆菌数量增加，血清胆固醇浓度降低（p<0.05）。同样，试验添加物提高了大腿肌肉中超氧化物歧化酶和谷胱甘肽过氧化物酶的活性（p<0.05）。除 IGF-1 基因表达外，WP 和 BAS 之间在研究参数上未发现协同作用。WP、BAS 及其组合饲料可改善鹌鹑的生长性能，这可能与小肠吸收能力的提高以及合成代谢生长因子的过度表达有关。总之，WP 或与 BAS 联合使用可作为一种有益的日粮补充剂，提高鹌鹑的生产性能、肠道功能和抗氧化能力。
