The effects of dietary supplementation of Artemisia argyi polysaccharide on immune and antioxidative functions in broilers

ABSTRACT

In this study, the effects of Artemisia argyi polysaccharide (AAP) on broilers’ immune and antioxidative functions and the underlying regulatory mechanism were investigated. In this experiment, 288 one-day-old Arbor Acres plus broilers were randomly allocated into 6 treatments with 6 replicates where each treatment group contained 6 replicate groups and there were 8 broilers in each replicate group. The control group was fed the basal diet, and the experimental groups were fed the basal diet supplemented with 250, 500, 750 or 1000 mg/kg AAP in comparison with 50 mg/kg chlortetracycline for 42 d. The result demonstrated that the best amount of AAP addition was 1000 mg/kg for growth. It could promote the contents of cytokines, immunoglobulin as well as the activity of the antioxidant enzyme (GPx), and reduce the malondialdehyde (MDA) content in the serum of broilers on 42 d. The same dose of AAP could regulate the immune and antioxidant functions in the liver of broilers, and activate the TLR/NF-κB signal pathway in broilers. The growth-promoting effect of AAP was comparable to that of chlorotetracycline.

KEYWORDS:

• Chicken
• mugwort extract
• feed additive
• immunity
• antioxidation

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Ethic Approval

The care and use of laboratory animals reported in this study were approved by the Inner Mongolia Agricultural University’s Animal Care and Use Committee and the Ministry of Agriculture of China (GB/T 35892-2018).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the college of animal science of Inner Mongolia Agricultural University by means of an animal nutrition and metabolism room as the site of this study. This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [Project No. 31660674].