Dietary Nisin Modulates the Gastrointestinal Microbial Ecology and Enhances Growth Performance of the Broiler Chickens

Due to antimicrobial properties, nisin is one of the most commonly used and investigated bacteriocins for food preservation. Surprisingly, nisin has had limited use in animal feed as well as there are only few reports on its influence on microbial ecology of the gastrointestinal tract (GIT). The present study therefore aimed at investigating effects of dietary nisin on broiler chicken GIT microbial ecology and performance in comparison to salinomycin, the widely used ionophore coccidiostat. In total, 720 one-day-old male Ross 308 chicks were randomly distributed to six experimental groups. The positive control (PC) diet was supplemented with salinomycin (60 mg/kg). The nisin (NI) diets were supplemented with increasing levels (100, 300, 900 and 2700 IU nisin/g, respectively) of the bacteriocin. The negative control (NC) diet contained no additives. At slaughter (35 days of age), activity of specific bacterial enzymes (α- and β-glucosidases, α-galactosidases and β-glucuronidase) in crop, ileum and caeca were significantly higher (P<0.05) in the NC group, and nisin supplementation decreased the enzyme activities to levels observed for the PC group. A similar inhibitory influence on bacterial activity was reflected in the levels of short-chain fatty acids (SCFA) and putrefactive SCFA (PSCFA) in digesta from crop and ileum; no effect was observed in caeca. Counts of Bacteroides and Enterobacteriacae in ileum digesta were significantly (P<0.001) decreased by nisin and salinomycin, but no effects were observed on the counts of Clostridium perfringens, Lactobacillus/Enterococcus and total bacteria. Like salinomycin, nisin supplementation improved broiler growth performance in a dose-dependent manner; compared to the NC group, the body weight gain of the NI(900) and NI(2700) groups was improved by 4.7 and 8.7%, respectively. Our findings suggest that dietary nisin exerts a mode of action similar to salinomycin and could be considered as a dietary supplement for broiler chickens.