Protease supplementation attenuates the intestinal health damage caused by low-protein diets in Pekin ducks

Abstract

The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of low-protein diets with low digestibility of feed ingredients on intestinal damage and to explore whether the protease supplementation can alleviate the damage in Pekin ducks. A total of 576 Pekin ducklings (6 replicate pens, 16 ducks/pen) were randomly assigned to 6 dietary treatments (3 × 2 factorial arrangement) in a randomized complete block design. Factors were CP levels (13.5%, 15.5%, and 17.5%) and protease (0 or 20,000U/kg). Compared with the diets containing 17.5% CP, low-protein diets (13.5% CP) showed suppressed ( P < 0.05 ) growth performance and feed intake (FI); reduced ( P < 0.05 ) serum-free arginine, isoleucine, leucine, methionine, phenylalanine, valine, and proline as well as the cecal acetate and propionate concentration; increased ( P < 0.05 ) plasma and ileal mucosal tumor necrosis factor-α ( TNF-α ) concentration; and downregulated ( P < 0.05 ) mRNA expression of TNF-α, nuclear transcription factor-κb, interferon gamma, and Occludin in ileal mucosa. Irrespective of the dietary CP levels, protease supplementation significantly increased ( P < 0.05 ) the serum-free glutamic acid concentration while decreasing ( P < 0.05 ) the plasma endotoxin, IL-6, and the cecal isovalerate concentration. A significant interactive effect was observed between low-protein diets and protease supplementation ( P < 0.05 ) on serum-free arginine concentration, the ratio of ileal villus height to crypt depth, and the IL-6 concentration in ileal mucosa. These results indicated that low-protein diets could damage intestinal integrity to induce systemic inflammation response and at last to suppress growth performance. Protease supplementation could partly attenuate the negative effects on gut health caused by low-protein diets in Pekin ducks.

Black soldier fly larvae meal supplementation in a low protein diet reduced performance, but improved nitrogen efficiency and intestinal morphology of duck

“…However, in the present study, meeting AA requirements such as methionine, lysine, threonine, arginine, valine, isoleucine, and tryptophan on a low-protein diet resulted in linearly depressed growth performance (p<0.05), regardless of various protein sources. The lowering CP levels affected to reduce the growth performance, as also reported by Wang et al [27], the result was validated by the data, where reduction CP levels suppressed the FI, BW, weight gain, and ADG and increased FCR. Wang et al [28] in their research stated that a decrease in feed protein levels (13.5% and 15.5%) reduced FI and BW in ducks aged 15 to 35 days.…”

“…The supply of non-essential amino acids such as glycine, glutamine, and proline contributed to the development of intestinal villi [ 33 ]. In their study, Wang et al [ 27 ] discovered that a decrease in essential amino acids, particularly free branched chain amino acids, damaged intestinal morphology. This was supported by the findings of Facey et al [ 32 ], who discovered that low concentrations and digestibility of proteins had a negative impact on development and function of the intestine.…”

Different amino acid supplementation patterns in low-protein diets on growth performance and nitrogen metabolism of goslings from 1 to 28 days of age

“…In this study, the growth performance reached the control level (CP, 18.55%) when supplementing the major AA pattern and all AA patterns in the low-protein diets (CP, 15.55%) in the goslings. Similar results were observed in low-protein diets in chickens ( Bezerra et al, 2016 ; van Harn et al, 2019 ; Teng et al, 2021 ), laying hens ( Alagawany et al, 2020 ; Uyanga et al, 2022 ), ducks ( Xie et al, 2017 ; Jiang et al, 2018 ), quail chicks ( Elsayed et al, 2021 ), and goose ( Wang et al, 2020 ). It is concluded that the growth performance would not be adversely affected by low-protein diets when the appropriate amount of AA is supplemented.…”

Poultry By-Product Meal as a Potential Protein Source in Broiler Diets with Exogenous Protease Supplementation

“…The significant effect of dietary protease supplementation on meat color is noted in the present study where protease reduced redness and yellowness in minced breast meat at 35 days post-hatch. However, dietary protease supplementation has not influenced chicken meat color in previous studies (Xu et al, 2017;Lu et al, 2020;Sumanasekara et al, 2020;Wang et al, 2020). Higher meat pH value seems to be influential in generating darker or reddish color in meat (Fletcher, 1999;Wattanachant et al, 2004); however, it is not the case in the present study.…”