Effects of dietary oligosaccharide supplementation on growth performance, concentrations of the major odor-causing compounds in excreta, and the cecal microflora of broilers

• Published in: Poultry science Vol. 95; no. 10; pp. 2342 - 2351
• Main Authors: Yang, G. Q., Yin, Y., Liu, H. Y., Liu, G. H.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Poultry Science Association, Inc 01.10.2016
• Subjects: Animal Feed - analysis; Animals; Cecum - microbiology; Chickens - growth & development; Chickens - metabolism; Chickens - microbiology; Diet - veterinary; Dietary Supplements - analysis; Feces - chemistry; Female; Male; Odorants - analysis; Oligosaccharides - metabolism; Random Allocation; oligosaccharide; growth performance; excreta odor compound; broiler; cecal microflora
• ISSN: 0032-5791; 1525-3171
• DOI: 10.3382/ps/pew124

This study investigated the effects of dietary supplementation with 4 types of oligosaccharides on the growth performance, concentrations of the major odor-causing compounds in excreta and cecal microflora of broilers. Three hundred 21-day-old Archer Abor broilers with an average initial live weight of 702.3 g were randomly divided into 5 dietary treatments: basal diet, basal diet + 5 g/kg of mannan-oligosaccharide (MOS), basal diet + 1.2 g/kg of inulin, basal diet + 1.5 g/kg of fructo-oligosaccharide (FOS), and basal diet +1.25 g/kg of soybean oligosaccharide (SBOS), respectively. Each diet was fed to 6 replicates of 10 birds from d 21 to 42, and body weight and feed intake were recorded. Fresh excreta were sampled from each replicate on d 40, 41, and 42 and stored at −20 °C until further analysis. On d 42, the ceca of killed birds were aseptically removed, and the cecal contents were collected into sterile containers and stored at −80 °C until further analysis. Results showed that feeding inulin, FOS, and SBOS diets resulted in an improvement in daily gain (P < 0.05). Broilers fed the SBOS diet showed lower feed:gain ratio (1.84g:g) than the other groups (P > 0.05). Broilers fed the FOS diet showed the lowest volatile basic nitrogen, pH value, and indole and skatole contents in excreta, and broilers fed the SBOS diet had higher total volatile fatty acids concentrations than control (P < 0.05). The cecal microbial community was measured using the PCR-DGGE, which indicated that the cecal microflora Shannon-wiener index and richness of SBOS-fed broilers were significantly higher than that of the control (P < 0.05). The lowest evenness was recorded in the FOS group, which was significantly lower than the other groups (P < 0.05) except the SBOS group. Based on the sequences of the corresponding 16S rDNA of the DGGE bands, in combination with the contents of the major odor-causing compounds in excreta, it is suggested that uncultured Lachnospiraceae bacterium and Bacteroides sp. were associated with the production of major odor-causing compounds in excreta.