Supplemental Docosahexaenoic-Acid-Enriched Microalgae Affected Fatty Acid and Metabolic Profiles and Related Gene Expression in Several Tissues of Broiler Chicks

Abstract

This experiment was to enrich docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) in broiler tissues through feeding a DHA-rich microalgal biomass and to explore the underlying metabolic and molecular mechanisms. Hatchling Cornish male broilers (total = 192) were fed a corn−soybean meal basal diet containing a full-fatted microalgae (Aurantiochytrium) at 0%, 1%, 2%, and 4% for 6 weeks (n = 6 cages/treatment, 8 birds/cage). The inclusion of microalgae led to dose-dependent (P < 0.01) enrichments of DHA and decreases (P < 0.01) of n-6/n-3 fatty acids (FAs) in plasma, liver, muscle, and adipose tissue. The microalgae supplementation also lowered (P < 0.05−0.1) nonesterified FAs concentrations in the plasma, liver and adipose tissue. The mRNA abundances of most assayed genes involved in lipid metabolism were decreased (P < 0.05) in the liver but elevated (P < 0.05) in the adipose in response to the biomass supplementation. In conclusion, the biomass-resultant DHA enrichments in the broiler tissues were associated with a distinctive difference in the expression of lipid metabolism-controlling genes between the liver and adipose tissue.

Feeding laying hens docosa hexaenoic acid-rich microalgae oil at 40 g/kg diet causes hypotriglyceridemia, depresses egg production, and attenuates expression of key genes affecting hepatic triglyceride synthesis and secretion, but is rescued by dietary co-supplementation of high-oleic sunflower oil

“…In addition to fish meal and fish oil, algal biomass ( Rymer et al, 2010 ; Fraeye et al, 2012 ; Lemahieu et al, 2013 ; Neijat et al, 2016 ; Manor et al, 2019 ; Moran et al, 2019 , 2020 ; Tolba et al, 2019 ; Wu et al, 2019 ; Liu et al, 2020 ; Kalia and Lei, 2022 ) and MAO ( Feng et al, 2020 ; Khan et al, 2021 ) are the other main commercially available ingredients containing preformed EPA and DHA that have been fed to poultry. Although oilseed crops, such as camelina ( Camelina sativa ) and canola ( Brassica napus ), which naturally are devoid of EPA and DHA, have recently been genetically engineered to contain VLC n-3 PUFA ( Tejera et al, 2016 ; Walsh et al, 2016 ), to the authors’ knowledge, they are not yet commercially available in the United States as animal feedstuffs.…”

Microalgae: Potential for Bioeconomy in Food Systems

“…For instance, improved growth and meat quality, as well as a decrease in chronic diseases in broiler chickens, were observed after supplementation with C. vulgaris, A. platensis, Staurosira sp., Schizochytrium sp., Aurantiochytrium sp. and Amphora coffeaeformis [51,[73][74][75][76]. In laying hens, supplementation with A. platensis, Nannochloropsis gaditana, and Porphyridium sp.…”

Supranutrition of microalgal docosahexaenoic acid and calcidiol improved growth performance, tissue lipid profiles, and tibia characteristics of broiler chickens

“…In the first experiment, we supplemented 1% DHA-rich Aurantiochytrium sp. biomass (1.2 g DHA/kg) as the source of DHA in diets for the enrichment of DHA according to our previous findings [11]. In a subsequent experiment, we used a commercial source of DHA-rich microalgal oil (1.5 to 3.0 g DHA/kg) as the source of DHA, along with an EPA-rich Nannochloropsis sp.…”