Effects of glucose oxidase on growth performance, gut function, and cecal microbiota of broiler chickens

A study was conducted to study the effects of glucose oxidase (GOD) supplement on the growth performance, gut function, and cecal microbiota in broiler chickens from 1 to 42 d, and further evaluate the use of GOD as an antibiotic substitution. A total of 525 1-d-old healthy Arbor Acres broilers were randomly assigned to five treatments, including control group, antibiotic growth promoters (AGP) supplement group, and three GOD supplement groups, with seven replicates per treatment and 15 birds per replicate. Growth performance, gut function including digestive ability and gut barrier, and cecal microbiota were determined. Compared with the control group, the increased daily body weight gain, improved meat quality, and enhanced digestive ability that indicated from the nutrients apparent digestibility and digestive enzymes were identified in GOD supplement groups, which could have a similar effect with the AGP supplement. The content of secreted immunoglobulin A and the transepithelial electrical resistance were also increased with the GOD supplement, which indicated an enhanced gut barrier. Additionally, 16S rRNA gene of cecal contents was sequenced by high-throughput sequencing. Sequencing data indicated that the Firmicutes phylum, Ruminococcaceae and Rikenellaceae families, Faecalibacterium genus, and F. prausnitzii species were significantly altered. Especially, combined with previous studies, our results indicated that the significantly increased F. prausnitzii, Ruminococcaceae, and Firmicutes could be involved in the effect of GOD on gut function and growth performance of broilers. Our results indicated that dietary GOD supplement could improve the growth performance of broilers in two main ways: by enhancing the digestive function of gut, which concluded from the improved nutrients apparent digestibility and digestive enzyme, and by increasing the abundance of beneficial bacterium, such as F. prausnitzii, Ruminococcaceae, and Firmicutes, which could be further served as an important regulator to improve the growth performance and the gut health.