Effects of Chinese Medicine Additives on Growth Performance,Slaughter Performance,Intestinal Microecology and Serum Biochemical Indices of Heat-Stressed Growing Rabbits
This experiment was conducted to study the effects of Chinese medicine additives on growth per-formance,slaughter performance,intestinal microecology and serum biochemical indices of heat-stressed grow-ing rabbits.A total of 48 healthy 2-month-old New Zealand white rabbits with similar body weight were ran-domly divided into 2 groups with 24 rabbits in each group(half male and half female),and the rabbits were individually housed in cages.Under summer heat stress,Rabbits in the control group were fed a basal diet,and others in Chinese medicine group were fed the basal diet supplemented with 1％Chinese medicine additives.The pre-experimental period lasted for 7 days,and the experimental period lasted for 42 days.The results showed as follows:1)there was no significant difference in final weight,average daily gain and feed to gain ratio between control group and Chinese medicine group(P＞0.05).The survival rate of Chinese medicine group was higher than that of the control group(83.3％vs.70.8％,P＞0.05).2)The semi-eviscerated weigh and semi-eviscerated percentage of Chinese medicine group was significantly higher than that of the control group(P＜0.05).3)The caecal contents dry matter content of Chinese medicine group was significantly high-er than that of the control group(P＜0.05),and the contents of acetic acid and propionic acid in caecal con-tents were trend to lower than the control group(P=0.092).4)There was no significant difference in total bacteria count and alpha diversity in caecal contents between control group and Chinese medicine group(P＞0.05).The relative abundance of Faecalibacterium and Faecalibacterium_prausnitzii in caecal contents of Chi-nese medicine group were significantly higher than those of the control group(P＜0.05),and the relative abun-dance of Akkermansia and Escherichia coli in caecal contents were trend to higher than the control group(P=0.080,P=0.088).5)The coccidian oocysts number in feces of Chinese medicine group was trend to lower than the control group(P=0.082).4)There were no significant differences in serum biochemical indices be-tween control group and Chinese medicine group(P＞0.05).In conclusion,dietary Chinese medicine additives can improve the slaughter performance and intestinal health of heat-stressed growing rabbits by regulating intes-tinal microecology.[Chinese Journal of Animal Nutrition,2024,36(3):1867-1877]
growing rabbitsChinese medicine additivesheat stresssurvival rateintestinal microecology
万方数据
维普
