The study was conducted to investigate the effects of Clostridium butyricum and Lactobacillus plantarum on growth performance, immune function and volatile fatty acid (VFA) level of caecal digesta in broilers. One hundred and forty broilers were assigned to five groups (CON: basal diet; CB: basal diet+ C. butyricum; MLP: basal diet+ L. plantarum; MIX: basal diet+ C. butyricum + L. plantarum; ANT: basal diet + Aureomycin). The results showed that, birds in CB group had greater serum IgM level than that in control group at day 21 (P < .05). Birds in MIX group had greater serum IgM and IgA levels than those in MLP group at day 42 (P > .05). The current results indicated that dietary supplementation of C. butyricum increased serum immunoglobulin level and VFA level of caecal digesta in broilers, but a combination of supplementations with C. butyricum and L. plantarum had no significant effect on growth performance.

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ABSTRACT:The aim of this study was to determine the effects of enzymatically hydrolyzed wheat gluten (HWG) on growth performance, serum antioxidant indices, immune functions and small intestinal mucosal morphology in weaned pigs. A total of 96 weaned piglets were randomly allocated to 3 diets with 4 pens/diet, and 8 piglets/pen (4 barrows and 4 gilts). The diets were: basal diet (CON), basal diet supplemented with 2% wheat gluten (WG), and basal diet supplemented with 2% HWG. The experimental period was 28 days. Pigs fed HWG diet had greater (P <0.05) average daily gain, average daily feed intake and feed efficiency, and lower (P <0.05) diarrhea rates than those fed CON diet or WG diet. On d 28 after weaning, serum total antioxidative capacity, glutathione peroxidase and superoxide dismutase activities of pigs fed the HWG diet were greater (P <0.05) than those fed CON diet or 2% WG diet. Pigs fed HWG diet had larger (P < 0.05) spleen and abdominal nymph nodes than pigs fed CON diet or WG diet. In conclusion, dietary WG enhanced growth performance and health of weaned pigs when it was enzymatically hydrolyzed, implying peptides form of glutamine is more beneficial to the nutrient absorption.

The objective was to investigate the effects of dietary supplementation of wheat starch processing wastewater (WSW) on growth performance, nutrient digestibility and immune function in sheep. Eighty male Hu sheep were divided randomly into five treatments. Five groups of sheep were fed isocaloric and isonitrogenous diets containing 0 (M1), 0.5% (M2), 1% (M3), 1.5% (M4) and 2% (M5) WSW, on dry matter (DM) basis, respectively. We found that the disappearance for the DM, crude protein (CP), gross energy(GE), ash and organic matter of WSW at 48 h were 62.52%, 64.32%, 65.62%, 55.78%, 62.74%, respectively. The feed: gain (F:G) for M5 was 0.77% and 0.64% less than M1and M3, respectively (P < .05). Serum characteristics (IgA, IgG, IgM and total protein) were not affected by WSW. These results indicated that fed diets containing up to 2% DM of WSW had reduced F:G and increased CP digestibility.