GUSTOR N’RGY and its effects on broilers

This study presented in ESPN (21st European Symposium on Poultry Nutrition), evaluated the effect of GUSTOR^® N’RGY on performance, cecal immune-related genes, and cecal microbiome of broilers when dietary energy and amino acids concentrations were reduced.

One-day-old chicks were fed dietary treatments in a 3 x 2 factorial design (8 pens/treatment; 46 birds/pen) with 3 dietary formulations (control diet, reduction of 2.3% of amino acids and 60 kcal/kg, and reduction of 4.6% of amino acids and 120 kcal/kg) with or without the inclusion of N’RGY. Feed intake (FI), body weight gain (BW gain) and FCR were determined. At 28d, cecal tonsils and cecal content were collected for gene expression and microbiota analysis using real time PCR and 16S RNA sequencing, respectively.

N’RGY improved the BW gain (P<0.05), without affecting FCR. Nutrients reduction impaired BW gain by 6% (P<0.01), while the N’RGY improved BW gain by 2% (P<0.05). An interaction effect (P=0.004) showed that N’RGY improved the BW gain of birds fed the first level of nutrient reduced diets. The nutritionally reduced diet altered the imputed function performed by the microbiota, and N’RGY was able to reduce these variations, keeping microbial function similar to controled diets. N’RGY addition modulated the immune measures in the cecal tonsils; wherein N’RGY unregulated the expression of ubiquitin-editing enzyme A20 in broilers fed controled diets (P<0.05) and increased IL-6 expression (P<0.05). N’RGY partially recovered BW gain of birds fed nutritionally reduced diets, modulated the cecal microbiota and demonstrated immune modulatory effects.