Performance, serum biochemical responses, and gene expression of intestinal folate transporters of young and older laying hens in response to dietary folic acid supplementation and challenge with Escherichia coli lipopolysaccharide

Abstract

The present study was conducted to investigate the effects of dietary folic acid (FA) supplementation on performance, serum biochemical indices, and mRNA abundance of intestinal folate transporters in young and older laying hens after acute lipopolysaccharide (LPS) challenge. Two experiments were conducted separately involving 48 Shaver White young laying hens (24 wk of age) in experiment 1 and 48 Shaver White older laying hens (58 wk of age) in experiment 2. Birds were fed 2 diets in a complete randomized design. The diets were wheat-soybean meal based, with or without supplemental 4 mg of FA/kg of diet. Birds were fed for 8 wk, during which time feed consumption and egg production were monitored. At the end of each feeding experiment, 6 hens from each dietary treatment were injected intravenously with 8 mg/kg of BW of either Escherichia coli LPS or sterile saline. Four hours after injection, blood and intestinal samples were collected for further analysis. Compared with the control, dietary FA supplementation increased egg weight and egg mass and decreased serum glucose levels in the young laying hens, and reduced serum uric acid in the older laying hens (P < 0.05). Relative to saline injection, plasma homocysteine, serum calcium, and phosphorus levels were found to be lower in both young and older laying hens after LPS challenge (P < 0.05). Other serum biochemical variables and the mRNA expression of 2 folate transport genes in the small and large intestine were differentially affected by LPS challenge, and some of those responses varied with the age of the birds. Additionally, interactions between diet and LPS challenge were specifically found in the older laying hens. In summary, in addition to improving production performance, there were effects of dietary FA supplementation and its interaction with LPS challenge on biochemical constituents, and age played a role in the development of responses to diet and bacterial LPS infections.

Effect of Maternal Folate Deficiency on Growth Performance, Slaughter Performance, and Serum Parameters of Broiler Offspring

“…Thus, affecting the overall formation of skeletal muscle in piglets ( Li et al , 2013 ). Conversely, dietary FA supplementation increased egg weight and egg mass and decreased serum glucose levels in young laying hens, and reduced serum uric acid in older laying hens ( Jing et al , 2014 ). Overall, maternal folate levels have a positive impact on the growth and development of their offspring.…”

Nutritional requirements of meat-type and egg-type ducks: what do we know?

“…Folic acid is necessary for maintaining a normal growth rate and acceptable FCR in broiler chickens, as well as a greater egg weight and higher hatchability in egg-type birds [ 124 , 125 ]. The egg weight and egg mass in laying hens aged 24 wk can be improved by adding 4 mg folic acid/kg of diet for 8 wk [ 126 ]. Dietary folic acid supplementation alleviates the oxidative stress induced by heat stress and improves the productive performance and carcass yield in quails [ 127 ].…”

Effects of different levels of dietary folic acid on the growth performance, muscle composition, immune response and antioxidant capacity of freshwater prawn, Macrobrachium rosenbergii

“…The digestive enzyme in crustaceans plays a fundamental role in nutritional physiology and regulates the growth and moult cycle directly or indirectly and in the other hand digestion capability and feed utilization efficiency of an organism, and their activities mostly depend on the nature and composition of a diet administered (Jing et al, 2014;Asaikkutti et al, 2016;Ismat et al, 2013;Sesay et al, 2016).…”