Department of Agrifood, Environmental and Animal Science, University of Udine, Via delle Scienze 206, 33100 Udine, Italy.
Department of Veterinary Sciences, University of Messina, Via Palatucci snc, 98168 Messina, Italy.
Res Vet Sci. 2024 Aug;176:105340. doi: 10.1016/j.rvsc.2024.105340. Epub 2024 Jun 23.
This research delves into the impact of substitution of 7% of poultry meal (PM) with hydrolyzed feather meal (HFM) on the animal performance and fecal microbiota of dogs. The study was conducted on six adult female English setter dogs, split into control (CTR), and treated (TRT) dietary treatment groups, with similarity for age, initial body weight, and body condition score. During 45-days, body weight, body condition score, muscle condition score, fecal consistency score and microbiota were monitored at the beginning of the trial and after 3, 7, 15 and 45 days. No significant differences (P > 0.05) were observed for these parameters over the whole period of the trial, neither in relation to diet, nor to time, nor to the interaction diet x time. Significant differences were observed for alpha between diets and the TRT group displayed higher evenness compared to the CTR group. Beta diversity analysis revealed distinctions in microbiota composition between the CTR and TRT groups, with the former demonstrating higher biodiversity. Discriminant analysis highlighted 9 significant taxa and 6 of them were significantly different at the Kruskal Wallis test between diets. The results showed an increase in relative abundance (RA) for the CTR group of Streptococcus, Colinsella stercoris, Ruminococcus gnavus, and Bacteroides coprophilus. Conversely, higher RA was observed in the TRT group for Peptostreptococcaceae and Bacteroides uniformis. These findings indicated that the inclusion of hydrolyzed feather meal in the diet of dogs is well accepted and do not have adverse effects in the parameters analyzed.
本研究探讨了用水解羽毛粉（HFM）替代 7%的禽肉粉（PM）对犬只动物性能和粪便微生物群的影响。研究对象为 6 只成年雌性英国塞特犬，分为对照组（CTR）和治疗组（TRT）饮食处理组，两组在年龄、初始体重和身体状况评分方面具有相似性。在 45 天的试验期间，在试验开始时以及第 3、7、15 和 45 天监测体重、身体状况评分、肌肉状况评分、粪便稠度评分和微生物群。整个试验期间，这些参数在饮食、时间或饮食 x 时间相互作用方面均未观察到显著差异（P > 0.05）。在饮食和 TRT 组之间观察到 alpha 多样性存在显著差异，与 CTR 组相比，TRT 组表现出更高的均匀度。β多样性分析显示 CTR 和 TRT 组之间的微生物群落组成存在差异，前者表现出更高的生物多样性。判别分析突出了 9 个重要的分类群，其中 6 个在 Kruskal Wallis 检验中在饮食之间存在显著差异。结果表明，对照组中链球菌、柯林斯氏菌、真杆菌和拟杆菌的相对丰度（RA）增加。相反，TRT 组中消化链球菌科和均匀杆菌的 RA 更高。这些发现表明，在犬只饮食中添加水解羽毛粉是可以接受的，并且在分析的参数中没有不良影响。
