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Title
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Dietary organic acid supplementation improved productive performance, jejunal morphology, immune status, antioxidant- and inflammation-related gene expression, blood biochemistry, and meat quality of broiler chickens
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Abstract
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This experiment investigated the influence of dietary inclusion of an organic acid blend (OAB) on productive performance, carcass characteristics, jejunal morphology, immune responses, antioxidant- and inflammation-related gene expression, blood biochemistry, and meat quality in broilers over a 42-day trial. 120 1-day-old chicks were randomly allocated to either a basal diet or the same diet supplemented with 0.1% OAB. OAB supplementation decreased body weight gain (BWG) and feed intake (FI) during the starter period but increased BWG and European production efficiency index (EPEI) and improved feed conversion ratio (FCR) during the finisher period. Over the entire experimental period, OAB improved FCR and tended to increase EPEI (P = 0.096), whereas BWG and FI were unaffected. At day 42, OAB increased jejunal villus height and villus surface area. OAB supplementation decreased the heterophil percentage and heterophil-to-lymphocyte ratio, enhanced the jejunal expression of NFE2L2 and SOD1, and reduced TNFα expression. Birds fed OAB also showed higher serum glucose, total protein, and albumin concentrations. OAB reduced press loss and cooking loss in breast muscle and press loss in thigh muscle, increased the pH of both muscles, and tended to reduce cooking loss in thigh muscle (P = 0.091). These findings demonstrate that dietary inclusion of OAB enhances feed efficiency, intestinal development, antioxidant and immune functions, and meat quality attributes in broilers.
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