Effects of Emulsified Phytosterol on Growth Performance,Intestinal Morphology,Cecal Microbial Communities and Metabolites of Fujian White Rabbits
This study aimed to investigate the effects of emulsified phytosterol on the growth performance,in-testinal morphology,cecal microbial communities and metabolites of Fujian white rabbits.A total of 150 healthy and similarly weighted 40-day-old Fujian white rabbits were selected and randomly divided into 5 groups with 30 rabbits in each group(half male and half female),and the rabbits were fed separately.The control group was fed a basal diet,and test group A added 20 mg/kg of ordinary phytosterol to the basal diet,while test groups B,C and D added 10,20 and 40 mg/kg of optimized emulsified phytosterol,respectively.The experimental period was 60 days.The growth performance,intestinal morphology,the composition of ce-cal microbial communities,and the composition and relative contents of cecal metabolites in each group were measured.The results showed as follows:1)compared with the control group and test group A,the diarrhea rate and mortality of Fujian white rabbits in test groups B,C and D obviously decreased,and various growth performance indicators such as average daily feed intake,average daily gain,and feed to gain ratio improved to a certain extent.The average daily gain and feed to gain ratio of test group C were the best,and the difference between the test group C and the other groups was significant(P＜0.05).2)Compared with the control group,the duodenal villi length in the test group C and the jejunal villi length in the test groups B and C were signifi-cantly increased(P＜0.05),the duodenal crypt depth in the test groups A,B,C,D and the jejunal crypt depth in the test groups B,C,D were significantly decreased(P＜0.05),the duodenal and jejunal villus length/crypt depth(V/C value)in the test groups A,B,C,D and the ileal V/C value in the test groups B,C,D were significantly increased(P＜0.05).The jejunal and ileal V/C value in the test group A was signifi-cantly lower than that in the test groups B,C,D(P＜0.05);the duodenal villi length in the test group C and the duodenal V/C value in the test groups C,D were significantly higher than those in the other groups(P＜0.05).3)There are large differences on the composition of cecal microbial communities between the test groups B,C,D and the control group and the test group A.At the phylum level,Firmicutes and Bacteroidota were the main phyla in test groups B,C,D;Firmicutes/Bacteroidota(F/B)showed a trend of first increasing and then slightly decreasing with the increase of emulsified phytosterol additive dosage.At the genus level,Muribaculaceae,Ruminococcaceae_NK4A214_group,Akkermansia,Clostridia_UCG-014 and Clostridia_vad-inBB60_group were the dominant microbial genus of each group.4)The relative contents of metabolites such as sugars,alcohols,organic acids and amino acids in the cecum of rabbits in each test group with emulsified phytosterol were increased,while the relative contents of some lipids and lipid substances decreased,and the relative contents of hormone like substances increased compared with the control group.Spearman correlation a-nalysis indicated that these metabolites were closely related to the Eubacterium_coprostanoligenes and Rumino-coccaceae_V9D2013_group.In summary,adding emulsified phytosterol to the diet of Fujian white rabbits can reduce the diarrhea rate and mortality,increase the average daily feed intake and average daily gain,reduce the feed to weight ratio,improve the intestinal morphology and cecal microbial community composition,and in-crease the relative contents of metabolites in cecum,especially the short chain fatty acids.When the additive dosage of emulsified phytosterol is 20 mg/kg,the growth performance and intestinal mucosal morphological in-tegrity of Fujian white rabbits are best,that is the suitable additive dosage of emulsified phytosterol in the diet for Fujian white rabbits.[Chinese Journal of Animal Nutrition,2024,36(5):3231-3246]
emulsified phytosterolFujian white rabbitsgrowth performanceintestinal morphologymicro-bial community compositionmetabolite
万方数据
维普
