Effects of rearing system and antibiotic treatment on immune function, gut microbiota and metabolites of broiler chickens

作者：Bochen Song, Peng Li, Huiping Xu, Zhong Wang, Jianmin Yuan, Bingkun Zhang, Zengpeng Lv, Zhigang Song, Yuming Guo · 发表于：Journal of Animal Science and Biotechnology/Journal of animal science and biotechnology · 年份：2022 · DOI：10.1186/s40104-022-00788-y · 被引用次数：45 · 研究领域：Animal Nutrition and Physiology、Gut microbiota and health、Aquaculture disease management and microbiota

BACKGROUND: In China, cage systems with a high space utilization have gradually replaced ground litter systems, but the disease incidence of chickens in cages is higher. Broilers in the ground litter pens may be stimulated by more environmental microbes during the growth process and show strong immune function and status, but knowledge of which microbes and their metabolites play an immunomodulatory role is still limited. This study aimed to explore the differences and correlations in the immune function, gut microbiota and metabolites and the importance of gut microbiota of broilers raised in cages and ground litter pens. METHODS: The experiment involved a 2 × 2 factorial arrangement, with rearing systems (cages or ground litter pens) and antibiotic treatment (with or without broad-spectrum antibiotics in drinking water) as factors. RESULTS: The results showed that, compared with the cage group, the ground litter broilers had stronger nonspecific immune function (Macrophages% and NO in blood), humoral immune function (IgG in blood, LPS stimulation index in ileum) and cellular immune function (T%, Tc%, ConA stimulation index and cytokines in blood). Antibiotic (ABX) treatment significantly reduced nonspecific immune function (Macrophages% and NO in blood, iNOS and Mucin2 mRNA expression in ileum), humoral immune function (IgG in blood and sIgA in ileum) and cellular immune function (T% and cytokines in blood, Th and Tc ratio, TLRs and cytokines mRNA expression in ileum). Furt...