Abstract:

This study investigated the effect of Phytobiotics (PB) and Antibiotic Growth Promoter (AGP) on performance, intestinal morphology and nutrients transporters mRNA gene expression of broiler chickens. One hundred eighty unsexed one-day-old Ross strains with an average initial body weight (BW) of 45 ± 0.5 g were randomly assigned into three treatments with six replications of 10 chicks in each pen. (1) Control group (CON), basal diets only; (2) antibiotic group, Antibiotic Growth promoter (AGP), basal diet supplemented with 5 mg/kg tetramycin; (3) Phytobiotics (PB), basal diet supplemented with 0.5g/kg, phytobiotics the research lasted for 42 days. Average Daily Feed Intake (ADFI), Average Daily Gain (ADG) and Feed Conversion Ratio (FCR) were calculated weekly, and intestinal morphology of Villus Height (VH), Crypt Depth (CD), and Villus Height to crypt depth ratio (VH: CD) from the duodenum, jejunum, and ileum, nutrients transporters qRT-PCR mRNA expression of GLUT1, SGLT4, GLUT5, PEPT2, CAT1, and LAT1 were evaluated at day 42. Chicks fed PB had significantly (P=0.0413) higher ADG at 1-42 days, PB and AGP significantly had lower FCR (P=0.0001) and (P=0.0001) at 22-42 d and 1-42 days, respectively, in duodenum the villus height was significantly (P=0.0001) longer in PB fed chickens and the lowest was recorded in CON, while the CD and VH: CD were significantly longer in AGP and PB fed chickens, in jejunum VH and CD were significant (P=0.0001) longer in PB and AGP than the CON fed chickens, in ileum PB fed birds had significant higher VH and CD than the AGP and CON fed groups, in duodenum and ileum GLUT1, SGLT4 and GLUT5 expression were highly expressed in AGP and PB fed chickens similar results was obtained in jejunum and ileum by PEPT2 and CAT1. These findings suggest that supplementing phytobiotics in broiler diets improves growth performance and intestinal morphology and up-regulated the expression of nutrient transporters' genes. However, the underlying detailed biological mechanisms and dose standardisation for inclusion in broiler diets need to be further studied.