Acta Veterinaria et Zootechnica Sinica ›› 2021, Vol. 52 ›› Issue (9): 2522-2533.doi: 10.11843/j.issn.0366-6964.2021.09.015

• ANIMAL NUTRITION AND FEEDS • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Effects of Synbiotics on Meat Quality, Antioxidant Capacity and Immune Function of Cherry Valley Ducks

WANG Ruixiu, CHEN Zhongwei, LIU Qiang, ZHUANG Su*   

  1. College of Animal Science and Technology, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, China
  • Received:2021-01-19 Online:2021-09-23 Published:2021-09-26

Abstract: This study aimed to explore the effects of dietary supplementation of synbiotics, as a possible antibiotic substitute, on meat quality, serum biochemical indexes, antioxidant capacity and immune function of Cherry Valley ducks. A total of 540 one-day-old Cherry Valley ducks were randomly assigned to 3 groups with 6 replicates of 30 ducks each. The ducks were fed with basal diet free from antibiotics (control group), basal diets +bacitracin zinc (40 mg·kg-1, antibiotic group), and basal diet+synbiotic (1 000 mg·kg-1, synbiotic group). The experimental period lasted for 42 days, which consisted of starter period (1-14 d) and grower period (15-42 d). At day 14 and 42 of the experiment, one male duck whose weight was close to the average body weight from each replicate was randomly selected, weighed and slaughtered. Then blood, muscle, immune organs and intestinal mucosa samples were collected for the determination of serum biochemical indexes, muscle quality, immune organs indexes, antioxidant indexes, and the expression of intestinal immune-related genes. The results showed that:1) Dietary supplementation of synbiotics or antibiotics significantly reduced the cooking loss of breast and thigh muscles (P<0.05) and the brightness value of thigh muscle (P<0.05), and significantly increased the redness value of thigh muscle at 24 h after slaughter (P<0.05). 2) Compared with control group, except for the significant increase of spleen index at 42 d in antibiotic group (P<0.05), dietary supplementation of synbiotic or antibiotic had no significant effect on the serum biochemical indexes and immune organ indexes of Cherry Valley ducks (P>0.05). 3) In synbiotic group, glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) activity in the serum at 14 d was higher than that in control and antibiotic groups (P<0.05), the activity of superoxide dismutase (SOD) in jejunal mucosa at 42 d was higher and malonaldehyde contents in jejunal mucosa at 14 d was lower than those in the control group (P<0.05). Compared with control group, dietary supplementation of synbiotic or antibiotic significantly increased jejunal mucosal GSH-Px activity at 42 d (P<0.05), then ileal mucosal GSH-Px activity at 14 d in antibiotic group was higher than that in control and synbiotic groups (P<0.05). 4) The mRNA expression of Toll-like receptor 3 (TLR3) in jejunum mucosa in synbiotic group at 14 d was higher than that in the control group (P<0.05), but no significant difference compared with antibiotic group (P>0.05); the mRNA expressions of retinoic-acid-inducible gene I (RIG-1) in the ileal mucosa at 14 and 42 d in synbiotic group were significantly higher than that in control and antibiotic groups (P<0.05); Compared with control group, dietary supplementation of synbiotic or antibiotic significantly upregulated mRNA expression of TLR3 and TLR7 in the ileal mucosa at 14 d (P<0.05). Based on the above results, the synbiotic, as a substitute for antibiotics, could improve the meat quality, promote the antioxidant capacity, enhance the expression of immune-related genes in the intestinal mucosa and improve the immunomodulation of Cherry Valley ducks.

Key words: synbiotic, Cherry Valley ducks, meat quality, serum biochemical indexes, antioxidant capacity, immunity

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