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Effects of dietary Zanthoxylum bungeanum seed powder on growth performance, immune function, and cecal microbiota in
Zhijin Hu1, Huatao Liu1, Yuxi Shen1
1Animal Nutrition and Bio-feed, Key Laboratory of Chongqing Education Commission of China, College of Animal Science and Technology, Southwest University, Chongqing, 400715, China.
Abstract:
This study was conducted to evaluate the effects of Zanthoxylum bungeanum seed powder (ZBS) on growth performance, immune function, and cecal microbiota in 817 broilers. A total of 260 one-day-old 817 broilers were randomly assigned to 4 treatment groups (CON, ZBS1, ZBS2, and ZBS3) with 5 replicates per treatment and were fed diets containing 0, 1%, 2%, or 3% ZBS, respectively, for 63 d. The results showed that dietary ZBS had no significant effects on average daily feed intake, average daily gain, or gain-to-feed ratio (P > 0.05). However, body weight at 28 and 63 d and average daily gain during d 1-28 and d 1-63 showed significant quadratic responses to increasing dietary ZBS levels (P < 0.05). The bursa of Fabricius index increased linearly with increasing ZBS inclusion (P < 0.05). Serum concentrations of IL-2, IL-6, TNF-α, IgA, and IgG and splenic contents of IgA, IgG, C3, and C4 were significantly increased (P < 0.05), whereas splenic IL-1β content and the expression of TLR4/MyD88/NF-κB pathway-related genes was significantly decreased (P < 0.05). 16S rRNA sequencing showed that ZBS did not affect cecal microbial α-diversity (P > 0.05), but altered microbial community composition. The relative abundances of Faecalibacterium, Bifidobacterium, and Megasphaera were significantly increased in the 3% ZBS group (P < 0.05). PICRUSt2 analysis indicated that the predicted abundances of starch and sucrose metabolism, carbohydrate metabolism, the phosphotransferase system, and pyruvate-formate lyase-related functions were significantly increased in the 3% ZBS group (P < 0.05). Redundancy analysis showed that microbial community variation was significantly associated with dietary ZBS level and immune-related parameters, including IgA, IgG, C3, and C4 (P < 0.05). In conclusion, dietary ZBS improved humoral immunity-related parameters, reduced the expression of inflammation-related genes in the spleen, and affected the composition and predicted functions of the cecal microbiota in broilers. Based on quadratic regression of splenic C4, IL-1β, TRAF2, TLR4, and NFKB2, the optimal dietary ZBS inclusion level was estimated at 1.00-2.55%.
