National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and Environment, Avian Biology and Poultry Research, Université de Tours, Nouzilly F-37380, France.
National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and Environment, Avian Biology and Poultry Research, Université de Tours, Nouzilly F-37380, France.
Poult Sci. 2021 Feb;100(2):1205-1212. doi: 10.1016/j.psj.2020.11.013. Epub 2020 Nov 19.
Sustainability of poultry farming relies on the development of more efficient and autonomous production systems in terms of feed supply. This implies a better integration of adaptive traits in breeding programs, including digestive efficiency, to favor the use of a wider variety of feedstuffs. The objective of the study was to better characterize the kinetics of development of the digestive tract in broilers, in relationship with digestive efficiency by measuring various digestive parameters as well as serum color. Absolute and relative growth of gastrointestinal tract organs were compared between 2 divergent chicken lines selected on digestive efficiency (AMEn) during 7 wk of development. We show that as early as 7 d of age, these 2 lines differs for several organs developments and that these differences remain visible later on. In addition, the allometry of the gizzard and intestine segments is different between the 2 lines, with efficient birds putting more effort in the upper part of the digestive tract during postnatal development and less-efficient birds putting more effort in the lower part of the gastrointestinal tract. Interestingly, we also showed that differences in serum pigmentation, which is a good biomarker for digestive capacity, could be a convenient diagnostic tool to discriminate between chickens with high or low digestive efficiency at early stages of development. In conclusion, this study showed that selection of chickens for AMEn had large impacts in gastrointestinal development including at early stages and is a valuable resource for further studies on the genetic and physiological control of the response of the animal to feed variations.
家禽养殖的可持续性依赖于在饲料供应方面开发更高效和自主的生产系统。这意味着需要更好地将适应性特征纳入到育种计划中，包括消化效率，以利于更广泛地利用各种饲料。本研究的目的是更好地描述肉鸡消化道发育的动力学，以及通过测量各种消化参数和血清颜色来研究消化效率。在 7 周的发育过程中，选择了在消化效率（AME n）方面存在差异的 2 个鸡品系，比较了胃肠道器官的绝对和相对生长。结果表明，早在 7 日龄时，这 2 个品系在几个器官的发育上就存在差异，这些差异在后期仍然存在。此外，2 个品系的肌胃和肠道段的异速生长不同，高效鸡在出生后发育过程中更注重消化道的上部，而低效鸡更注重胃肠道的下部。有趣的是，我们还发现，血清色素沉着的差异（这是消化能力的良好生物标志物）可以作为一种方便的诊断工具，用于在发育早期区分消化效率高或低的鸡。总之，本研究表明，对 AMEn 的选择对包括早期在内的家禽胃肠道发育有很大影响，是进一步研究动物对饲料变化反应的遗传和生理控制的有价值资源。
