Curcumin has antioxidant functions, regulates the intestinal microbial composition, and alleviates mycotoxin toxicity. The present study aimed to explore whether curcumin could alleviate ochratoxin A (
OTA
)-induced liver injury via the intestinal microbiota. A total of 720 mixed-sex 1-day-old White Pekin ducklings were randomly assigned into 4 groups: CON (control group, without OTA), OTA (fed a diet with 2 mg/kg OTA), CUR (ducks fed a diet with 400 mg/kg curcumin), and OTA + CUR (2 mg/kg OTA plus 400 mg/kg curcumin). Each treatment consisted of 6 replicates and 30 ducklings per replicate. Treatment lasted for 21 D. Results were analyzed by a two-tailed Student
t
test between 2 groups. Our results demonstrated that OTA treatment had the highest serum low-density lipoprotein (
LDL
) level among 4 groups. Compared with OTA group, OTA + CUR decreased serum LDL level (
P
< 0.05). OTA decreased liver catalase (
CAT
) activity in ducks (
P
< 0.05), while addition of curcumin in OTA group increased liver CAT activity (
P
< 0.05). 16S ribosomal RNA sequencing suggested that curcumin increased the richness indices (ACE index) and diversity indices (Simpson index) compared with OTA group (
P
< 0.05) and recovered the OTA-induced alterations in composition of the intestinal microbiota. Curcumin supplementation relieved the decreased abundance of butyric acid producing bacteria, including
blautia
,
butyricicoccus
, and
butyricimonas
, induced by OTA (
P
< 0.05). OTA also significantly influenced the metabolism of the intestinal microbiota, such as tryptophan metabolism and glyceropholipid metabolism. Curcumin could alleviate the upregulation of oxidative stress pathways induced by OTA. OTA treatment also increased
SREBP-1c
expression (
P
< 0.05). The curcumin group had the lowest expression of
FAS
and
PPARG
mRNA (
P
< 0.05) and the highest expression of
NRF2
and
HMOX1
mRNA. These results indicated that curcumin could alleviate OTA-induced oxidative injury and lipid metabolism disruption by modulating the cecum microbiota.