Effect of benzoic acid on production performance, egg quality, intestinal morphology, and cecal microbial community of laying hens

Abstract

This study was conducted to determine the effects of supplemental dietary benzoic acid on production performance, egg quality, intestinal morphology, and intestinal microbiota of laying hens. A total of seven hundred twenty 45-wk-old Lohman pink-shell laying hens were randomly allocated to 3 dietary treatments: control ( CON ), diet supplemented with 1,000 mg/kg benzoic acid ( BA1 ), and 2,000 mg/kg benzoic acid ( BA2 ). Each treatment included 10 replicates of 24 hens; laying hens were monitored for 16 wk. Overall, the results indicate that benzoic acid supplementation had no effect on laying rate, feed intake, feed conversion ratio, and breaking rate; however, a decrease in egg weight ( P < 0.01) was observed in the BA2 group. Albumen height and Haugh unit ( HU ) were also linearly increased in the BA1 and BA2 groups (linear effect, P < 0.05). An increase in duodenum villus height ( V ) (quadratic effect, P = 0.041) and crypt depth ( C ) (linear effect, P = 0.012) was observed in the BA2 group, whereas an increased jejunum C and decreased V/C (quadratic effect, P < 0.05) in the BA1 group. Moreover, an increase in ileum V and C (quadratic effect, P < 0.05) was observed in the BA1 group. Microbial richness and diversity were reduced in the BA2 group ( P < 0.01). An increase in the abundance of Clostridia (class), Clostridiales (order), Ruminococcaceae (family), and Lachnospiraceae (family) was noted in the BA1 group, whereas an enrichment of Bacteroides caecicola (species) was observed in the BA2 group. The HU positively correlated with genus Sphaerochaeta and Enorma (r = 0.56, 0.56; P < 0.05) but negatively correlated with Romboutsia, Subdoligranulum, Helicobacter, and Mucispirillum (r = −0.58, −0.49, −0.48; −0.70; P < 0.05). In conclusion, dietary supplementation with benzoic acid had no effect on production performance, but it significantly improved egg quality. In addition, 1,000 mg/kg benzoic acid positively modulated intestinal health by improving intestinal morphology and enriching microbial composition.

Effects of Different Fermented Feeds on Production Performance, Cecal Microorganisms, and Intestinal Immunity of Laying Hens

“…Correlation analysis revealed the relationship between production performance, gut immune function, and intestinal microorganisms, and clarified the potential roles of intestinal microorganism structure in the production performance and gut immune functions of laying hens. It was worth noting that an increase in Bacteroides abundance was accompanied by the improvements of albumen height, which was also discovered in previous studies [72]. Bacteroides is widely regarded as one of the beneficial genera, which is an effective degraders of nondigestible carbohydrates and SCFA producers, and plays an important role in the maturation of the immune system [73].…”

Characterization of the Intestinal Microbiota of Broiler Breeders With Different Egg Laying Rate

“…Over the past years, a significant improvement in poultry production has resulted in extremely high level of efficiency in both broiler chickens and laying hens, with birds reaching 3 kg in body weight at 40 days of age and hens laying 500 eggs in 100 weeks (2). The microbiota is defined as the microbial community, including commensal, symbiotic and pathogenic microorganisms (3) which could interact with the host, resulting in the influence on metabolism, immunity and even behavior (4,5). A normal and stable microbiota play a pivotal role in maintaining optimal gastrointestinal functionality, animal health, welfare and production performances (6).…”

Alleviating effect of dietary supplementation of benzoic acid, Enterococcus faecium and essential oil complex on coccidia and Clostridium perfringens challenge in laying hens

“…However, our study used this compound that composed of benzoic acid, EOs, and Enterococcus faecium and found that the BEC group had no effect on the production performance of laying hens, but the BEC +challenge group increased laying rate and decreased the FCR of laying hens. It is reported that dietary supplementation with benzoic acid has no effect on the laying rate, feed intake, feed conversion ratio of laying hens ( Gong et al., 2021 ). Yan et al.…”

“…Benzoic acid was considered as one of the most common acidifiers, and it was improved that could increase the weight gain and feed conversion rate of broilers ( Jozefiak et al., 2007 ). Moreover, some studies suggested that benzoic acid had the potential to improve growth and intestinal health ( Partanen and Mroz, 1999 ; Mroz et al., 2000 ; Kaya et al., 2014 ; Gong et al., 2021 ).…”