Effects of organic zinc on production performance, meat quality, apparent nutrient digestibility and gut microbiota of broilers fed low-protein diets.

The high cost of feed and nitrogen pollution caused by high-protein diets have become major challenges restricting sustainable development in China's animal husbandry sector. Properly reducing protein levels and improving protein utilization in feed are effective approaches to solving this problem. To determine the optimal dose of methionine hydroxyl analogue chelated zinc (MHA-Zn) in broiler diets with a 1.5% reduction in crude protein (CP), a total of 216 1-day-old broilers were randomly assigned into 4 groups (each group consisted of 3 replications with 18 broilers per replicate), and growth and development indexes were assessed after 42 days. The broilers in control group were fed a basic diet, whereas those in the three test groups were fed diets with a 1.5% reduction in CP. The results showed no significant difference in the edible parts of broilers between low-protein (LP) diet group (90 mg/kg MHA-Zn) and normal diet group (p > 0.05), and adding 90 mg/kg MHA-Zn to LP diet significantly improved ileum morphology and apparent total tract digestibility (ATTD) of nutrient (p < 0.01; p < 0.05). A 16S rRNA sequencing analysis indicated that supplementing the LP diet with 90 mg/kg MHA-Zn was adequate for production performance of broilers and promoted beneficial bacteria in the cecum (Lactobacillus, Butyricoccus, Oscillospira, etc.) (p < 0.01). In summary, adding an optimal dose of organic zinc (90 mg/kg MHA-Zn) in low protein diets led to enhanced production performance of broilers and optimized cecum microbiota. Additionally, the reduction of crude protein consumption in broiler production proved to be a cost-effective measure, while also mitigated nitrogen pollutant emissions in the environment.

Effects of Compound Chinese Herbal Medicine Additive on Growth Performance and Gut Microbiota Diversity of Zi Goose.

This study investigated the effects of CCHMA on growth performance, slaughter performance, serum biochemical indicators, intestinal morphology and microbiota of Zi goose. Initially, it was determined the optimal addition concentration of CCHMA to be 3 g/kg by the first feeding experiment. Then, 78 Zi geese were divided into control and CCHMA supplemented groups. The results showed that the body weight (BW) and average daily gain (ADG) of the CCHMA supplemented group was significantly increased (p < 0.05), and the feed/gain (F/G) of the CCHMA supplemented group was significantly decreased (p < 0.05) compared with the control group. The dressed yield percentage in the CCHMA supplemented group significantly increased by 0.78% (p < 0.05). Alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and aspartate aminotransferase (AST) levels were significantly lower in the CCHMA fed birds than in the control group (p < 0.05). Further, 16S rDNA gene sequencing conducted for cecal flora composition found that 3 g/kg CCHMA significantly increased the abundance of beneficial bacteria (CHKCI001, Colidextribacter and Subdoligranulum) (p < 0.05; p < 0.01) and suppressing harmful bacteria (Bacteroidetes and Methanobrevibacter) (p < 0.05) in the cecum of Zi goose. In conclusion, adding 3 g/kg of CCHMA in the diet can improve the growth performance, slaughter performance of Zi goose, and optimize the cecum microflora.

Integrated strategy for identifying isoflavones in Belamcandae Rhizoma based on the combination of mass defect filtering and neutral-loss-triggered multistage fragmentation.

Belamcandae Rhizoma is a widely used traditional Chinese herbal medicine with isoflavones as the main active ingredient. In this paper, an integrated strategy was developed to discover and identify new isoflavones in Belamcandae Rhizoma by an ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with high resolution multistage mass spectrometry. Different characterization methods were used based on structural features of isoflavone aglycones and glycosides. On one hand, we adopted a data-dependent acquisition mode incorporated into intelligent AcquireX deep scan algorithms to analyze crude extract, and used a mass defect filtering technique to filter out two kinds of isoflavone aglycones from the extract. On the other hand, neutral-loss-triggered MSn was used to analyze isoflavone glycosides, and under this acquisition mode, MSn scan only took place when chemical components exhibited specific neutral losses. Identification of isoflavones was achieved either by comparison with reference compounds or analysis of characteristic product ions based on MS2 or MSn fragmentation patterns. UV absorbance spectra also contributed to the confirmation of isoflavones. As a result, a total of 65 isoflavone aglycones (42 new aglycones) and 142 isoflavone glycosides (122 new glycosides) were discovered, including a number of trace components. Meanwhile, modifications of new sugar moieties, such as xylose, rhamnose and 6-O-(4­hydroxy-3,5-dimethoxybenzoyl)-ß-D-glucose, were discovered in Belamcandae Rhizoma for the first time. These results indicated the feasibility of this established strategy for in-depth identification of new isoflavone aglycones and glycosides.