Adding dandelion to rabbit diets: enhancing the growth performance and meat quality by altering immune competence and...

Healthy meat quality is an important guarantee for food safety. This study evaluated the addition of dandelion meal to the diet to investigate its effects on growth performance, carcass traits, antioxidant capacity, immune performance, and intestinal flora of Hycole meat rabbits. In the experiment, we assessed changes in meat quality, immune markers, and gut flora in rabbits by ELISA, serological assays, and 16S rRNA sequencing. The results showed that the addition of 1.5% and 2% dandelion to the diet significantly increased the daily weight gain of meat rabbits and reduced the feed-to-weight ratio (P < 0.05); the drip loss of the 1.5% dandelion group was significantly lower than that of the control group (P < 0.05); the addition of dandelion to the diet significantly reduced the content of MDA (P < 0.05), and had no significant effect on the blood indexes (P > 0.05), and the addition of 2% dandelion significantly reduced the content of gut flora (P > 0.05). The addition of 2% dandelion significantly decreased serum SOD content (P < 0.05); IgA, IgG, and IgM in the serum of meat rabbits were significantly increased by the addition of dandelion to the diet (P < 0.05); moreover, the analysis of the intestinal flora showed that the bacterial abundance of the group with the addition of 0.5% dandelion was the highest and significantly higher than that of the other groups (P < 0.05). This study provides a theoretical reference for exploring the application of Chinese herbal medicine in rabbit breeding. It provides significant value for improving the quality of rabbit meat, reducing the use of antibiotics, and providing healthy meat products for humans.IMPORTANCEThis study provides a theoretical reference for exploring the application of Chinese herbal medicine in rabbit breeding. It provides significant value for improving the quality of rabbit meat, reducing the use of antibiotics, and providing healthy meat products for humans.