Poultry Science最新文献

The differences in metabolites between fresh egg yolk (FEY), spray-dried egg yolk powder (SEY), and stored egg yolk powder (S-SEY) were quantitatively compared through metabolomic analysis. Total of 1004 metabolites were identified in the three groups of egg yolk samples. In pairwise group analysis, 242 differential metabolites were identified in FEY and SEY, 311 differential metabolites were identified in FEY and S-SEY, and 157 differential metabolites were identified in SEY and S-SEY. The analysis of differential metabolites with the highest abundance showed that amino acids, carbohydrates and lipids in FEY would undergo oxidation reactions after spray drying and storage and thus led to significant changes in the type and abundance of metabolites. The representative differential metabolites were then screened out for judging the freshness of egg yolk powder. Therefore, the results are highly important for evaluating the quality of egg yolk powder and provide important information for understanding the nutritional changes of egg yolk after spray drying and storage.

Recently, feeding a fungal mycelium from Pleurotus sapidus was found to reduce relative breast muscle weight of broilers. The present study tested the hypothesis that dietary inclusion of P. sapidus mycelium modulates the expression of genes involved in protein anabolic and protein catabolic pathways in breast muscle of broilers. The study included 72 male, 1-day-old Cobb 500 broilers which were randomly assigned to three groups fed three different diets containing either 0 (PSA-0), 25 (PSA-25) and 50 (PSA-50) g/kg diet P. sapidus mycelium in a three-phase feeding system for 35 days. Within the somatropic axis, the mRNA level of GHR was higher and that of IGF1R was lower in group PSA-25 than in group PSA-0 (P < 0.05). Within the mTOR signaling pathway, the mRNA level of S6K1 was higher in group PSA-25 than in group PSA-0 (P < 0.05). Within muscle growth-related genes, the mRNA level of MYOG was lower in groups PSA-25 and PSA-50 than in group PSA-0 (P < 0.05). The relative phosphorylation of proteins involved in protein anabolic pathways (S6K1, RPS6, eIF2a, AKT) did not differ across the three groups. The mRNA of most genes involved in molecular pathways of protein degradation and inhibition of protein synthesis, such as the GCN/eIF2a pathway, the ubiquitin-proteasome pathway, and the autophagy-lysosomal pathway, showed no differences across the three groups. Only the mRNA level of ATG9A was higher in group PSA-25 compared to group PSA-0 (P < 0.05). These observations suggest that a modulation of these signaling pathways is unlikely to explain the reduced relative breast muscle weight in broilers. Nevertheless, future studies are necessary to exclude an effect of feeding P. sapidus mycelium on other less prominent pathways affecting skeletal muscle mass.

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of watering before slaughter and different evisceration methods on the quality characteristics of fattened goose liver. A total of randomly selected 60 male Greylag Landaise geese (Anser anser) were used to execute the experiment which had been force-fed during their growing period. In the slaughterhouse, randomized block design was followed and the birds were randomly divided into four experimental groups and half of the them (30 birds) were given 200 ml tap water. During the slaughter bleeding kinetics was measured and after the traditional processing steps (scalding, defeathering, waxing, water cooling, clearing of wax residues, rinsing, feet removal) 50 % of the birds (30 birds) were immediately eviscerated. The other half of the carcasses were eviscerated after 8 hours of cooling. Then pH and hemoglobin content were determined and the livers were vacuum packed and stored at -18 °C for 35 days (5 weeks). During this time color measurement and microbial analysis were taken. Results showed that pH was not influenced by neither the watering nor the evisceration methods. Hemoglobin content was significantly reduced by watering (P<0.001). Cold evisceration was proved to have siginificant effect on the color parameters (P<0.001), however the impact was not immediate, the difference was first detected on day 21. According to microbiological analysis four species were identified but none of them are known to produce hydrogen sulfide (H₂S) which is required to the formation of sulfhemoglobin which compound is most likely responsible for the greenish discoloration occured during the storage. In summary, it can be stated that the evisceration method had a great impact on the color of fattened goose livers and undesirable changes - e.g. surface greening - which commonly occur in case of vacuum packed and frozen stored livers could be prevented by the application of warm evisceration.

Xylanases require thermal stability to withstand the pelleting process, pH stability to function in the gastrointestinal tract, and resistance to xylanase inhibitors in raw materials to be effective in animal feed. A GH11 family xylanase originating from an anaerobic fungus, Orpinomyces sp. strain PC-2, has high specific activity and resistance to xylanase inhibitors intrinsically. It was engineered using rational protein design methods to obtain a thermal and pH stable enzyme, OXynA-M. OXynA-M showed resistance to three types of xylanase inhibitors, Triticum aestivum xylanase inhibitors TAXI-IB and TAXI-IIA and xylanase inhibitor protein XIP and showed melting temperature of 87.2°C when measured using differential scanning calorimetry. It was stable at all pH between 2.0-10.0 incubated up to 4 h. Xylo-oligosaccharides (XOS) production profile using a wheat arabinoxylan substrate revealed the production of xylobioses up to xylohexaoses, which are known to have prebiotic functionalities. An animal trial was conducted in broiler chickens to evaluate the in vivo efficacy of the xylanase. In total, 600 1-day-old chickens were divided into six dietary treatments, including a positive control (PC) (T1) without the addition of exogenous enzyme and the rest where exogenous xylanase was added at the rates of 1200, 2400, 4800, 9600, and 240000 U/kg of feed from T2-T6. An increase in OXynA-M xylanase improved the performance parameters in the enzyme-treated groups compared with the control. The viscosity of ileal digesta decreased with increasing enzyme dosage. A significantly lower viscosity of 6.54 cP was determined for the minimum dose in T2 (1200 U/kg), and the viscosity was further reduced in T6 (240000 U/kg) (P<0.05) compared to the control treatment. The apparent ileal digestibility of crude protein, fat, and starch improved as the xylanase dosage increased. The application of OXynA-M xylanase improved the apparent ileal digestibility of crude protein when the dose was higher than that of T2 (1200 U/kg). Furthermore, the AME_n of the diets improved when xylanase was supplemented at a rate of 9600 U/kg (T5) compared with the control treatment (P<0.05).

Weekly artificial insemination (AI) is a common practice on commercial turkey breeder farms. The aim of this study was to determine changes in stress as well as oviduct and systemic immunity in response to weekly artificial inseminations through the laying cycle of turkey hens. Hens were divided into sham (extender only) and semen (extender + sperm) treatments. Blood, uterovaginal junction (UVJ), vagina, and spleen were collected at start of lay, peak lay, and end of lay (n = 8-12 /group for blood and 5 for tissues). The heterophil to lymphocyte ratio (H:L) was significantly higher in the semen-inseminated hens compared with the sham-inseminated hens at peak lay (n = 0.05). Immunohistochemistry revealed a higher number of CD3+ T cells in sperm storage tubules (SSTs) and UVJ submucosa at the end of lay compared with start and peak of lay across insemination treatments (n = 0.07 and 0.01, respectively). Within the end-of-lay group, semen-inseminated hens showed a higher number of CD3+ T cells in SSTs and UVJ submucosa (n = 0.04 and 0.1, respectively). The number of IgM+ B cells was significantly higher at start of lay compared with end of lay in SSTs and spleen (n = 0.01 and 0.0001, respectively) regardless of insemination treatment. In the vaginal submucosa, the number of IgM+ B cells was significantly higher in the semen group compared with the sham group at peak lay (n = 0.04). The number of IgA+ and IgY+ B cells were higher in the UVJ submucosa at the end of lay compared with start of lay, regardless of insemination treatment (n = 0.0001 and 0.03 respectively). In summary, the localization and number of adaptive immune cells change in response to the presence of sperm and laying cycle and depend on factors including immune cell type and tissue compartment. This suggests that the adaptive immune system of the oviduct plays an important role in responding to sperm based on the stage of the laying cycle. Modulating this immune response could improve reproductive performance.

Dietary threonine (Thr) is known to influence fat deposition in poultry, but the precise mechanisms behind its regulatory effects on hepatic lipid metabolism remain elusive. Prior research indicated that including supplemental Thr in the feed may influence STAT3 (Signal Transducer and Activator of Transcription 3) levels in the liver of meat ducks. Numerous studies have recorded the function of STAT3 in regulating fatty acid (FA) metabolism in mammals. The primary objective of this study was to investigate whether Thr influences FA metabolism and triglycerides (TG) deposition in duck liver by regulating STAT3 expression. Primary hepatocytes were isolated from duck embryos and treated for 36 h with different doses of Thr (0, 10, 25, 50, 200 μM) in vitro or with a constructed STAT3 overexpression plasmid to examine the content of FAs and TG. RNA-seq was used to detect changes in gene expression in hepatocytes following STAT3 overexpression. The results demonstrated that both the exogenous addition of Thr and the overexpression of STAT3 significantly suppressed the capacity of hepatocytes for FAs deposition (P < 0.05). The overexpression of STAT3 also inhibited TG accumulation under conditions in response to Thr deficiency (P < 0.01). Transcriptomic analyses indicated that the overexpression of STAT3 inhibits the activity of triglyceride metabolism and unsaturated fatty acid biosynthesis (P < 0.01). Finally, a dual-luciferase reporter test demonstrated that STAT3 may systematically target and inhibit SCD1 transcription (P < 0.01). The present study indicates that supplemental Thr (50 μM) inhibits hepatic FA deposition via the STAT3-SCD1 pathway. This work enhances our comprehension of the functional roles of Thr and STAT3 in modulating lipid metabolism within duck livers. Moreover, it provides a partial theoretical foundation for the nutritional prevention and pharmacological intervention of lipid metabolism disorders in poultry.

Two trials were conducted to determine interactive effects between lipid source (palm oil, PO versus soybean oil, SO) and emulsifier addition (none versus glycerol monolaurate-GML) on apparent total tract digestibility (ATTD) of gross energy (GE) in broilers and growth performance in poults. In trial 1, 0.05 % GML addition had no impact on the ATTD of GE of SO but improved the ATTD of PO from 77.11 % to 88.21 % (interaction, P=0.03). Without GML addition, PO had a lower ATTD of GE (77.11 %) compared to SO (96.48 %) resulting in an AME of 7,259 versus 9,092 kcal/kg for PO and SO, respectively. In trial 2, the addition of 0.10 % GML reduced ADFI in poults fed diets containing 5 % PO compared to poults fed 0 or 0.05 % GML, while the addition of either 0.05 or 0.10 % GML reduced ADFI in poults fed diets containing 5 % SO compared to poults fed no GML (P=0.01). There was a similar response with ADG (P=0.01) where the addition of either 0.05 or 0.10 % GML reduced ADG in poults fed diets containing SO compared to poults fed no GML, while the addition of GML was largely without effect in poults fed diets containing PO. There was no interaction between lipid source and emulsifier addition on feed efficiency (P>0.10). Poults fed diets containing PO had a poorer feed efficiency compared to birds fed diets containing SO (P=0.01). The main effect of emulsifier was inconsistent in that poults fed the diets containing 0.10 % GML had the greatest feed efficiency compared to poults fed the diets containing 0.05 % GML, with poults fed diets containing no emulsifier being intermediate (P=0.10). In conclusion, addition of GML improved the ATTD of GE for PO but had no effect on the ATTD of GE for SO. This improvement in energy digestibility, did not however, translate to an improvement in poult performance. Broilers and poults fed diets containing SO had a greater feed efficiency compared to birds fed diets containing PO.

Corn, the primary ingredient in modern poultry feeds, contains high levels of ω-6 fatty acids but lacks sufficient ω-3 fatty acids, creating an imbalance. Maintaining a balance between ω-6 and ω-3 fatty acids in poultry diets is crucial due to their competition. This study aimed to evaluate the effects of incorporating different concentrations of an equal mix of soybean oil (SO) and flaxseed oil (FO) into quail diets on growth performance, carcass quality, and blood biochemistry. One-week-old Japanese quail birds (n = 200) were randomly assigned to four dietary groups, each comprising five replicates with 10 chicks per replicate. Four isonitrogenous/isocaloric basal diets were formulated. Group 1 (control) received a basal diet without SO or FO, while Groups 2-4 received basal diets supplemented with an equal mix of SO+FO at levels of 1.0 %, 1.5 %, and 2.0 %, respectively. The inclusion of oil mixes significantly increased body weight (BW) at five weeks and daily weight gain (DWG) during weeks 3-5 and 1-5. The feed conversion ratio (FCR) improved with the addition of oil mixes throughout the trial period. Supplementing quail diets with oil mixes resulted in reduced serum total cholesterol (TC) and LDL cholesterol, elevated serum HDL cholesterol, and no significant effect on triglycerides (TG) and VLDL cholesterol levels. Quails fed oil-supplemented diets showed lower serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), and creatinine levels, while urea and uric acid were significantly affected. Birds fed diets with oil mixes also had increased serum concentrations of immunoglobulin G (IgY), immunoglobulin M (IgM), and superoxide dismutase (SOD). However, serum immunoglobulin A (IgA), malondialdehyde (MDA), and total antioxidant capacity (TAC) levels did not significantly change across experimental groups. Overall, adding up to 2 % of the SO and FO mix in growing quail feeds improved growth performance, blood lipid profile, liver and kidney function markers, immune response, and antioxidant defense. The highest level of oil mix (2 %) yielded the most beneficial effects.