Abstract
This study was conducted to explore whether dietary pectic oligosaccharide (POS) supplementation could improve gut health of broiler breeders with different egg-laying rates. A 2 × 2 factorial design was used in this study. Two hundred fifty-six Arbor Acres broiler breeders (48 wk of age), including 128 average egg-laying rate and 128 low egg-laying rate (LELR) birds, were randomly fed with the diets supplemented with or without 200 mg kg(-1) of POS (n = 8). The trial lasted for 8 wk. Compared with average egg-laying rate broiler breeders, LELR broiler breeders had lower laying rate and qualified egg rate (P < 0.05), higher egg weight and feed conversion ratio (P < 0.05), higher malondialdehyde (MDA) levels in the jejunum (P < 0.05), higher IL-6 (P < 0.05) and tumor necrosis factor α (TNF-α) (P = 0.07) mRNA expressions in the jejunal mucosa, and lower microflora diversity in cecal digesta. Dietary POS supplementation increased egg weight of broiler breeders (P < 0.05), enhanced superoxide dismutase activity in the jejunum (P < 0.05), decreased MDA level in the jejunum (P < 0.05), upregulated zonula occluden 1 mRNA expression in the jejunal mucosa (P < 0.05), downregulated IL-6 and TNF-α mRNA expressions in the jejunal mucosa (P < 0.05), and regulated relative abundance of some microbiota (including the phylum and genus, P < 0.05). In addition, in LELR broiler breeders, POS administration enhanced villus height (P = 0.08) and ZO-2 mRNA expression (P = 0.09) in the jejunal mucosa, alleviated the increasing MDA level in the jejunum (P < 0.05) and IL-6 and TNF-α mRNA expressions in the jejunal mucosa (P < 0.05), and regulated relative abundance of some microbiota (including the phylum and genus, P < 0.05). These results suggest that supplementing POS in diets may elevate gut health via improvement of intestinal barrier function, antioxidant capacity, and microbiota composition in broiler breeders with different egg-laying rates.