Effects Of Sida Rhombifolia L On Growth Performance,Blood Indices And Intestinal Indices Of Two Native Chickens

As the national policy of prohibiting the use of antibiotics in feed and people’s pursuit of natural and healthy products,the application of traditional Chinese herbs and extracts is becoming more and more widespread.Sida rhombifolia L,a member of the Malvaceae family,is a kind of herb that can be used as medicine.It contains abundant chemical components and various functions.This study was conducted to investigate the effects of Sida rhombifolia L on growth performance,blood indexes and intestinal indexes of Anyi tile-like gray chickens and Ningdu yellow chickens.The results can provide theoretical basis for the application of Sida rhombifolia L in poultry feed industry.1.Effects of Sida rhombifolia L on blood indexes and cecal microbiota of Anyi tile-like grey chickens1.Twenty 350 days-old Anyi tile-like gray chickens were randomly divided into two groups: control group(fed basal diet)and a treatment group(fed basal diet + 3% of Sida rhombifolia L),the experiment lasted for 31 days,and the blood antioxidant indexes and cecum microbiota was determined.Result display: Compared with the control group,dietary supplement with 3% Sida rhombifolia L significantly increased the blood total antioxidant capacity and superoxide dismutase content of Anyi tile-like grey chickens(P <0.01),significantly increased the content of catalase(P < 0.05).The α-diversity of microbiota in caecum of Anyi tile-like grey chickens increased after the addition of Sida rhombifolia L(Shannon,P < 0.05;Chao1,P < 0.05).In terms of taxonomic analysis,34 microbial taxa showed significant differences between the two groups.Compared with the control group,the experimental group showed a significant increase in Actinobacteria,Desulfovibrionaceae,and Selenomonas(P < 0.05),while the pathogenic Escherichia coli was significantly reduced(P < 0.05).2.Effects of Sida rhombifolia L on growth performance,blood indexes and intestinal indexes of Ningdu yellow chickensA total of 120 66-day-old Ningdu yellow chickens were randomly divided into experimental group A(basal diet +1% Sida rhombifolia L),B(basal diet +2% Sida rhombifolia L),C(basal diet +3% Sida rhombifolia L)and control group D(basal diet).The experiment lasted for seven weeks,and growth performance,blood indexes,and intestinal indexes were measured.Our results showed that compared to the control group,supplementation with Sida rhombifolia L had no significant effect on the growth performance of the Ningdu yellow chickens(P > 0.05).However,there were significant differences between the experimental and control groups in catalase concentration,which was higher in the experimental group,specifically in group A(P < 0.01).Furthermore,the content of malondialdehyde was significantly lower in the experimental group,particularly in group C(P < 0.05).Sida rhombifolia L also significantly decreased the concentration of glutamic-oxalacetic transaminase in the blood(P < 0.01),while group B significantly decreased the concentration of alanine transaminase(P < 0.01).The heart index of the experimental group was higher than that of the control group and significantly different from group B(P < 0.05),but there were no significant differences in other internal organ indexes(P > 0.05).Interestingly,supplementing the diet with Sida rhombifolia L significantly increased the villus height and the ratio of villus height to crypt depth in the duodenum of the Ningdu yellow chickens(P < 0.01)and reduced crypt depth significantly(P < 0.01).Regarding the cecum microbiota,the α-diversity index ACE was significantly lower in the control group than in the experimental group(P < 0.01),and the Chao1 index was significantly lower in groups B and C than in the control group(P < 0.01).Beta diversity showed significant differences in the results of cecal microflora among all groups(P < 0.01).At the phylum level,group D significantly reduced the relative abundance of Desulfobacterota in portal water(P < 0.05),whereas the experimental group significantly(P < 0.05)decreased the relative abundance of Verrucomicrobiota.At the genus level,both experimental groups A and B significantly reduced the relative richness of unclassified＿Bacteroidales(P < 0.05),while group C significantly increased the relative richness of unclassified＿Lachnospiraceae(P < 0.05).The liver steatosis rate of the experimental group was also lower than that of the control group.In conclusion,our comprehensive analysis shows that adding fresh ground parts of Sida rhombifolia L to diets can enhance blood antioxidant capacity,improve intestinal morphology,increase cecum microflora diversity,reduce harmful microflora relative richness in the cecum,and protect the liver to a certain extent.