Growth performances, gastrointestinal epithelium and bacteria responses of Yellow-feathered chickens to kudzu-leaf flavonoids supplement

The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of replacing antibiotics with Kudzu-leaf flavonoids (KLF) on the growth performances, gut epithelial development, and gastrointestinal bacteria diversities of Yellow-feathered broilers. For this purpose, total of 216 1-day-old male Yellow-feathered chickens with the similar birth weight (31.0 ± 1.0 g) were randomly divided into 3 treatments: the control treatment (CON), the kudzu-leaf flavonoids supplement treatment (KLF), and the antibiotics supplement treatment (AGP). All birds were provided with a 56 d-feeding procedure, followed by the measurement of production performances, immune organs, blood anti-oxidant parameters, intestine epithelium development, and cecal microbiota. Results showed the feed conversion ratio significantly decreased after KLF supplement compared with CON (P < 0.05). KLF supplement partly promoted the anti-oxidant capacity on account of the increased activity of Superoxide dismutase (SOD) and the decrease content of malondialdehyde (MDA). Further, as referred to the gastrointestinal development and bacteria, ratio of villus/crypt significantly increased of ileum in KLF treatment (P < 0.05) while a significant promition of bacterial diversity and partial representative probiotic bacteria (P < 0.05) after KLF supplementation. Moreover, correlation analysis indicated that probitics including Bifidobacterium, Butyricimonas, Lactobacillus and Streptococcus positively correlated with production performances. In conclusion, KLF supplement may promote feed efficiency and benefit the gastrointestinal health through improving gut bacterial diversity and probiotic bacteria. The KLF might be applied as a proper antibiotic alternative. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s13568-021-01288-4.