Effects Of Extract Of Lonicerae Flos And Scutellariae Radix On Performance,Nutrient Utilization And Cecal Microflora Of Broilers

In order to study the effects of the extract of Lonicerae flos and Scutellariae radix（trade name: Jinfusu）as well as energy level on the production performance,nutrient utilization rate and cecal bacterial structure and diversity of commercial broilers,744 healthy 1-day-old AA broilers with almost equal initial weight were selected,24 of which were used as the endogenous group of the metabolism test,and remaining 720 chickens were randomly divided into six groups with six replicates in each group and 20 chickens per repeat.The experiment was conducted in a 2×3 factorial design,that is: three treatments（0 mg/kg,200 mg/kg,and400 mg/kg extract of Lonicerae flos and Scutellariae radix）were set up on the basis of feeding conventional energy diet and low energy diet.The energy level of the low energy diet is 0.29 MJ/kg less than the conventional energy diet.Chickens were raised in cages and fed with pellet feed.The dietary composition and nutritional level（except energy）were consistent among the treatments.Metabolic experiment was carried out during 33 to 35 days,in order to analyze the apparent and true utilization efficiency of different nutritive ingredients.At the 21 and 42 d of the experiment,one chicken from each replicate was slaughtered randomly in order to determine the slaughter performance,immune organ index,serum metabolic index,and cecal microflora,and the growth performance,including the average daily gain（ADG）,average daily feed intake（ADFI）and feed/gain（F/G）,was calculated.The results of the study are as follows:（1）Comparative analysis of the production performance（1）Growth performance: Neither the extract of Lonicerae flos and Scutellariae radix nor the energy level had significant effect on ADG,ADFI,F/G at 21 and 42 d（P > 0.05）,but the extract had a tendency to reduce the F/G during the early growth stage（1-21 d）（P = 0.065）.There is no interaction between the extract addition and energy level on growth performance indicators（P > 0.05）.（2）Slaughter performance: The addition of extract of Lonicerae flos and Scutellariae radix significantly improved the pectorales rate at 42 d（P < 0.05）,and greatly increased the half-eviscerated yield rate and crureus rate at 42 d（P < 0.01）.Compared with the conventional energy group,the low energy group significantly increased the eviscerated yield rate at 21 d,and the half-eviscerated yield rate and eviscerated yield rate at 42 d（P < 0.01）.Extract addition and energy level had interactive effect on the crureus rate at 42 d（P < 0.05）,and had greatly interactive effect on the pectorales rate at 42 d（P < 0.01）.These results suggest that both extract addition and energy reduction could improve the slaughter to a certain extent.（2）Comparative analysis of immune organ indexImmune organ index: Neither the extract of Lonicerae flos and Scutellariae radix nor the energy level had significant effect on the indexes of Bursa,spleen and thymus at 21 and 42 d（P > 0.05）.No interaction between energy level and extract addition was detected on immune organ indexes（P > 0.05）.（3）Comparative analysis of the serum metabolic indicators: The addition of the extract of Lonicerae flos and Scutellariae radix group significantly reduced the content of TC at 21 d（P < 0.01）.Compared with the conventional energy level,energy reduction significantly reduced the content of urea nitrogen（P < 0.05）and also greatly reduced the content of total cholesterol（TC）at 21 d（P < 0.01）.The extract addition and energy level had a significant interactive effect on the content of triglycerides at 21 d（P < 0.05）and also had a greatly significant interactive effect on the content of TC at 21 d（P < 0.01）.（4）Comparative analysis of the nutrient utilization efficiency（1）Utilization efficiency of the conventional nutritive ingredients: The addition of extract of Lonicerae flos and Scutellariae radix significantly improved the real utilization efficiency of GE and TME（P < 0.05）,and greatly increased the apparent and real utilization efficiency of OM and CP（P < 0.01）.Compared with the conventional energy level,energy reduction significantly improved the apparent and real utilization efficiency of crude protein（CP）（P <0.05）,greatly increased the apparent and real utilization efficiency of dry matter（DM）,organ matter（OM）and total carbohydrate（P < 0.01）and significantly improved the real utilization efficiency of gross energy（GE）and true metabolic energy（TME）（P < 0.05）.The extract addition and energy level had a greatly significant interactive effect on the increase of the apparent and real utilization efficiency of DM,OM and CP（P < 0.01）.（2）Utilization efficiency of the essential amino acids（EAAs）: The addition of extract of Lonicerae flos and Scutellariae radix significantly improved the apparent utilization efficiency of Phe,as well as the apparent and real utilization efficiency of Trp and His（P <0.05）,and greatly increased the apparent and real utilization efficiency of all EAAs except Trp,His and Phe（P < 0.01）.Compared with the conventional energy level,energy reduction significantly improved the apparent utilization efficiency of Leu（P < 0.05）,and greatly increased the apparent and real utilization efficiency of Lie（P < 0.01）.The extract addition and energy level had a significant interactive effect on the apparent and real utilization efficiency of Met and Lie（P < 0.05）,and had a greatly significant interactive effect on the apparent and real utilization efficiency of His and Val（P < 0.01）.（3）Utilization efficiency of the nonessential amino acids（NEAAs）: The addition of extract of Lonicerae flos and Scutellariae radix extract significantly improved the apparent utilization efficiency of Ala and the real utilization efficiency of Glu（P < 0.05）,as well as the apparent and real utilization efficiency of Asp（P < 0.05）.The extract also greatly increased the apparent utilization efficiency of all NEAAs except Asp,Glu and Ala（P < 0.01）as well as the true utilization efficiency of Gly,Cys,Try and total NEAAs（P < 0.01）.Compared with the conventional energy level,energy reduction significantly improved the apparent utilization efficiency of Pro（P < 0.05）,and significantly improved the apparent and real utilization efficiency of Asp（P < 0.05）,and also greatly increased the apparent and real utilization efficiency of Try（P < 0.01）.The extract addition and energy level had a significant interactive effect on the apparent and real utilization efficiency of Gly and Cys（P < 0.01）.The above results indicate that addition of extract of Lonicerae flos and Scutellariae radix could significantly improve the utilization efficiency of most EAAs and NEAAs;and energy reduction could increase the utilization efficiency of conventional nutritive ingredients（except the ether extract）as well as some EAAs and NEAAs.Both of them have positive effects on improving the nutrient utilization.（5）Comparative analysis of cecal bacterial structure and diversity（1）Alpha diversity: The addition of extract of Lonicerae flos and Scutellariae radix extract had no significant effect on the alpha diversity of the cecal microflora at either 21 or42 d（P > 0.05）.Compared with the conventional energy level,energy reduction greatly increased the Observed Species,Chao1 index and ACE index of the cecal microflora at 21 d（P < 0.01）,but significantly reduced the ACE index（P < 0.05）and greatly reduced the Observed Species,Shannon index and Chao1 index at 42 d.（P < 0.01）.No interaction between extract addition and energy level was detected on the alpha diversity at either 21 or42 d（P > 0.05）.（2）Relative abundance of species at the level of phyla and family: The addition of extract of Lonicerae flos and Scutellariae radix significantly increased the relative abundance of Cyanobacteria phyla at 21 d（P < 0.05）,but had no significant effect on the relative abundance of all families listed at either 21 or 42 d（P > 0.05）.Compared with the conventional energy level,energy reduction significantly increased the relative abundance of unidentified＿Bacteria and Cyanobacteria phyla as well as Barnesiellaceae family at 21 d（P <0.05）,and significantly reduced the relative abundance of Ruminococcaceae and Oscillospiraceae families（P < 0.05）.No interaction between extract addition and energy level was detected on the relative abundance of species at either 21 or 42 d（P > 0.05）.The above results suggest that energy reduction could significantly change the alpha diversity of cecal microflora in broilers,and either extract addition or energy level could affect the community structure of cecal microflora at least on the level of phyla and family.（6）Comparative analysis of the extract of Lonicerae flos and Scutellariae radix for improving economic benefit of broilersThe addition of extract of Lonicerae flos and Scutellariae radix had a tendency to improve the survival rate of broilers and the European index（P = 0.066）,energy level had no significant effect on survival rate and European index of broilers（P > 0.05）,There is no interaction between energy level and the extract addition on survival rate and European index（P > 0.05）.Addition of 400 mg/kg of the extract of Lonicerae flos and Scutellariae radix in conventional energy diet can significantly improve the economic benefits of broiler.In conclusion,addition of the extract of Lonicerae flos and Scutellariae radix in diet had a positive effect on improving the slaughter performance（at 42 d）and the utilization efficiency of amino acids in AA broilers.Feeding AA broilers with energy-reducing diet improved the slaughtering performance（at 21 and 42 d）and the utilization efficiency of the conventional nutritive ingredients without affecting the production performance,and also significantly affected the alpha diversity of the cecal Microflora（at 21 and 42 d）.Feeding extract addition and energy-reducing diet had a synergetic effect on improving the slaughter performance（at 42 d）and nutrient utilization efficiency of the AA broilers.The economic benefit evaluation showed that the economic benefit of the group with the addition of 400mg/kg of the extract of Lonicerae flos and Scutellariae radix in conventional energy diet was the best.