Effects Of Dandelion On Performance,Meat Quality And Cecal Microflora Structure Of Broilers

In this paper,the effects of dandelion on production performance,meat quality and intestinal flora of broilers were studied by two experimental systems,which provided a theoretical basis for the application of dandelion as a natural antioxidant in broiler diets.A total of 120 Arbor Acres broilers with similar initial body weight at 1 d of age were selected and randomly divided into 3 treatment groups with 5 replicates per treatment group and 8 broilers per replicate.The control group（CON）was fed a basal diet,and the other two groups were fed the basal diet with 0.5 g/kg（LD）and 1.0 g/kg（HD）Dandelion,respectively.The experiment lasted for 42 days.The experiment is mainly divided into two parts:Experiment 1:The effect of dandelion on production performance and meat quality of broilers.The results showed that compared with the control group,FCR,cooking loss rate,CP content and TBARS value（days 3 and 5）in LD group were significantly decreased（P<0.05）,while the a^*_45minshowed an increasing trend（P=0.083）;FCR,CP content,and TBARS value（days 3,5,and 7）were significantly decreased in HD group（P<0.05）,and ADFI and Arg content in HD group tended to decrease（P=0.087;P=0.084）.With the increase of dandelion supplemental level,the a^*_45minand C22:6n-3 content increased in linear and quadratic manner（P<0.10）,while the cooking loss rate and TBARS value（day 3）decreased in linear and quadratic manner（P<0.05）.Moreover,the CP content and TBARS value（day 5）linearly decreased（P<0.10）.Experiment 2:The effects of dandelion on cecal flora and VFA content in broilers.The results showed that different supplemental levels of dandelion had no significant effect on the Alpha diversity index of cecal microflora of broilers（P>0.10）,but the structure of cecal microflora was different in control group,LD group and HD group.Compared with control group,the Subdoligranulum,UCG-005,NK4A214＿group,Prevotella and contents of propionic acid in LD group were significantly increased（P<0.05）,while the Parabacteroides was significantly decreased（P<0.05）;the unidentified＿Bacteria,Chloroflexi,NK4A214＿group,contents of propionic acid,contents of butyric acid and contents of valeric acid in HD group were significantly increased（P<0.05）,while the Parabacteroides was significantly decreased（P<0.05）,Proteobacteria and Acidobacteriota had an increasing trend（P=0.069;P=0.072）,and Monoglobus and GCA-900066575 tended to decrease（P=0.083;P=0.083）.With the increase of dandelion supplemental level,The Subdoligranulum,UCG-005,NK4A214＿group,Prevotella and contents of propionic acid increased in linear and quadratic manner（P<0.05）,Parabacteroides decreased in linear and quadratic manner（P<0.05）.Correlation analysis showed that NK4A214＿group had a significant positive correlation with valerate content（P<0.05）.Akkermansia was positively correlated with butyric acid content,but negatively correlated with Arg content（P<0.05）.Parabacteroides was positively correlated with cooking loss（P<0.05）.In summary,dandelion could improve the growth performance and muscle quality of broilers,regulate the structure of cecal flora and increase the content of VFA.In terms of improving meat quality and regulating intestinal flora,low-dose dandelion has a better effect.