Acta Veterinaria et Zootechnica Sinica ›› 2023, Vol. 54 ›› Issue (6): 2448-2457.doi: 10.11843/j.issn.0366-6964.2023.06.023

• ANIMAL NUTRITION AND FEEDS • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Effects of Essential Oils on Gut Lesions, Carbohydrate Active Enzymes Spectrum and eggNOG Pathways of Intestinal Flora in Broilers Challenged with Clostridium perfringens

JIANG Meihan1,2, WEI Jintao2, GUO Yuming3, GUO Shuangshuang1*, DU Encun2*   

  1. 1. Hubei Key Laboratory of Animal Nutrition and Feed Science, Wuhan Polytechnic University, Wuhan 430023, China;
    2. Hubei Key Laboratory of Animal Embryo Engineering and Molecular Breeding, Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Research Institute of Hubei Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Wuhan 430064, China;
    3. State Key Laboratory of Animal Nutrition and Feed Science, College of Animal Science and Technology, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China
  • Received:2022-09-21 Online:2023-06-23 Published:2023-06-16

Abstract: The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of supplemental essential oils on gut lesions, CAZy spectrum and eggNOG pathways of intestinal flora in broilers challenged with Clostridium perfringens. A total of 112 1-day-old male Arbor Acre broiler chicks were randomly divided into two groups: Control group(Ctrl) and Essential Oil group(EO). Each group had 7 replicates and each replicate had 8 chicks. The broilers in group Ctrl were fed the basal diet, while the broilers in group EO were fed diet supplemented with 120 mg·kg-1 of essential oils (comprised of carvacrol and thymol). All broilers were challenged with C. perfringens during d 14 to 20 and were sacrificed on d 21. The overall intestinal injury degree was observed for intestinal lesion score, and the ileal content was collected for metagenomic next-generation sequencing analysis. The results showed that the supplementation of EO significantly alleviated the gut lesions (P<0.05).The abundance of most ileal bacterial genes were increased significantly at the second level and the EC level of the carbohydrate active enzymes (CAZy) database(q<0.05) in which the proportion of glycosyltransferases was the highest. The addition of EO remarkably influenced the composition of homologous protein genomes of ileal bacteria, and the relative abundance of genes were generally reduced (q<0.05) at the second level and the orthologous group(OG) level of the eggNOG database (evolutionary genetics of genes: Non superior Orthologous Groups).In addition, most of the reduced genes were bacterial virulence related genes, such as Catalyzes_ the synthesis of GMP from XMP, DsbA and dTDP-4-dehydrorhamnose 3,5-epimerase. The above results indicated that, dietary supplementation of EO alleviated the gut lesions caused by Clostridium perfringens, which could be related to the regulation of the abundance of carbohydrate active enzymes and virulence-related genes of the intestinal flora.

Key words: necrotic enteritis, metagenome, carbohydrate active enzyme, virulence

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