Abstract
Youth chickens will gradually transition to a fat accumulation-based development stage in their growth. The prevention and resolution of the issue is still a focus in the field of poultry research. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of E. cristatum fermented albino tea at the regreening stage (EFAT) on the fat deposition of youth chicken. In this study, a total of 120 Liyang chickens (age, 8 week) were randomly allocated into 6 groups (n=20): control group (basal diet), Dark tea group (basal diet supplemented with 1% dark tea), Green tea group (basal diet supplemented with 1% green tea) and I, II, III group (basal diet supplemented with 1 %, 2 % and 4 % EFAT, respectively). The feeding trial lasted 16 weeks. The results showed that EFAT supplementation improved the efficiency of feed resource utilization and reduced production costs by observing the growth data and calculating feed conversion ratio (FCR). It significantly reduced abdominal fat and intramuscular fat by observing the slaughter indicators and liver condition, and testing meat composition. EFAT supplementation significantly alleviated changes of biochemical parameters, including plasma triglycerides (TG), total cholesterol (TC), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), alanine Transaminase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), and glutamate aminotransferase (GGT). Moreover, EFAT supplementation markedly decreased content of malondialdehyde (MDA), and increased activities of total superoxide dismutase (T-SOD), catalase (CAT) and glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) by determining antioxidant activities. In conclusion, EFAT supplementation alleviated fat deposition, both abdominal fat and intramuscular fat by regulating growth and slaughter indicators, improving liver condition, blood biochemical profile and even antioxidant properties. This provides a scientific basis for the study of albino tea on high-fat chicken, which is of great significance to the development of the poultry industry.