Growth performance, carcass characteristics, meat and egg quality, and intestinal microbiota in Beijing-you chicken on diets with inclusion of fresh chicory forage

Figures & data

Table 1. Ingredients and nutrient compositions of experimental diets fed to 16–28 weeks Beijing-you chickens.

Item	16–20 weeks				21–28 weeks
	C0^a	C1	C2	C3	C0	C1	C2	C3
Ingredients,%
Corn	67.00	66	63.80	62.30	63.00	61.40	59	57.50
Wheat bran	4.00	—	—	—	3.00	—	—	—
Soybean meal	24.00	24.00	23.20	22.70	24.00	23.60	23.00	22.50
Chicory forage (on DM base)	—	5.00	8.00	10.00	—	5.00	8.00	10.00
Limestone	1.00	1.00	1.00	1.00	6.00	6.00	6.00	6.00
Vitamin-mineral premix^b	4.00	4.00	4.00	4.00	4.00	4.00	4.00	4.00
Nutrient compositions^c, %
ME, MJ/kg	11.67	11.63	11.54	11.45	11.06	11.02	10.93	10.79
CP	16.42	16.46	16.46	16.47	15.92	15.93	16.00	16.01
Ca	0.99	0.99	0.99	0.99	2.88	2.88	2.88	2.88
Total P	0.67	0.66	0.65	0.64	0.65	0.64	0.63	0.62
Available P	0.47	0.47	0.46	0.46	0.46	0.46	0.46	0.46
Lys	0.79	0.78	0.79	0.80	0.76	0.77	0.77	0.78
Met	0.40	0.39	0.40	0.40	0.38	0.39	0.39	0.39
Met + Cys	0.69	0.68	0.68	0.69	0.66	0.67	0.67	0.66

^a C0: control; C1, C2 and C3: dietary supplementation of 5%, 8% and 10% fresh chicory forage (on dry matter base), respectively.

^b Provided per kilogram of product: 100,000 to 250,000 IU of vitamin A; 90,000 IU of vitamin D₃; 500 IU of vitamin E; 105 mg of vitamin K₃; 52 mg of vitamin B₁; 180 mg of vitamin B₂; 113 mg of vitamin B₆; 0.6 mg of vitamin B₁₂; 739 mg of niacin; 225 mg of pantothenic acid; 23 mg of folic acid; 2.3 mg of biotin; 12.5 g of biotin choline; 0.2 to 0.8 g of Cu; 1.0 to 3.0 g of Zn; 1.5 g of Fe; 1.5 g of Mn; 2.5 to 7.5 mg of Se; 25 mg of I; 11.5% to 21.4% of Ca; 2.0% to 3.9% of P; 6.1% to 11.3% of sodium chloride; 2.3% to 4.3% of Met.

^c ME: metabolic energy; DM: dry matter; CP: crude protein; Ca: calcium; Total P: total phosphorus; Available P: available phosphorus; Lys: lysine; Met: methionine; Cys: cysteine.

Table 2. Effects of dietary treatments on performance and feed efficiency of Beijing-you chickens.

Item*	C0^#	C1	C2	C3	SEM^†	p value
BW, g	1924.83	2011.84	1984.87	1904.16	27.33	.53
ADG, g/d	8.61	9.85	9.67	7.66	0.48	.38
ADFI, g/d	66.70^d	106.30^c	145.90^b	157.10^a	13.34	<.001
FCR, g of feed/g of egg	3.68^d	5.73^c	7.96^b	9.07^a	0.29	.01
Egg-laying rate, %	48.35	45.79	45.48	43.45	0.82	.76
Egg weight, g	40.30^b	44.68^a	44.69^a	43.50^a	0.50	.002
Mortality, %	3.33^b	3.33^b	6.67^ab	9.33^a	2.93	.003

* BW: body weight; ADG: average daily gain; ADFI: average daily feed intake; FCR: feed conversion ratio.

^# C0: control; C1, C2 and C3: dietary supplementation of 5%, 8% and 10% fresh chicory forage (on dry matter base), respectively.

^† SEM: standard error of the mean.

^a–dMeans in the same row with different superscript letters are significantly different by Tukey’s multiple comparison method (p < .05).

Table 3. Effects of dietary treatments on carcass characteristics and meat quality of Beijing-you chickens.

Item*	C0^#	C1	C2	C3	SEM^†	p value
Carcass characteristics, %
Eviscerated carcass yield	56.32	57.58	58.49	56.64	0.63	.68
Breast muscle yield	7.82	7.95	8.60	8.06	0.16	.34
Thigh muscle yield	9.95	11.13	11.03	10.48	0.26	.39
Abdominal fat yield	4.13^a	1.02^b	1.43^b	1.11^b	0.49	.05
Breast muscle chemical compositions, %
DM	26.00	26.09	26.28	25.78	0.121	.59
CP	95.43	95.90	96.78	95.34	0.45	.72
Crude fat	1.85^b	2.24^ab	3.32^a	2.30^ab	0.20	.03
Crude ash	4.71	4.65	4.69	4.71	0.05	.98
IMP	1.49	1.52	1.55	1.50	0.01	.58
Total amino acids	66.27^b	70.03^a	74.53^a	71.28^a	1.01	.01
Essential amino acids^‡	24.53	26.02	25.76	27.22	0.41	.12
Non-essential amino acids	41.74^b	44.01^b	48.77^a	44.06^b	0.87	.01
Delicious amino acids^&	28.99^b	30.92^b	35.59^a	30.28^b	0.85	.01
Thigh muscle chemical compositions, %
DM	25.00	25.55	24.72	23.97	0.32	.42
CP	93.66	93.29	94.04	92.33	0.36	.41
Crude fat	10.75	11.91	10.14	10.83	0.43	.60
Crude ash	5.46	5.36	5.59	5.40	0.04	.08
IMP	1.14	1.15	1.13	1.15	0.03	.99
Total amino acids	70.05^c	76.69^ab	78.75^a	72.45^bc	1.22	.02
Essential amino acids	26.17	26.64	27.30	26.62	0.28	.63
Non-essential amino acids	43.41^b	50.51^a	51.45^a	45.83^b	1.11	.003
Delicious amino acids	33.91^b	41.03^a	41.67^a	36.38^b	1.09	.004

# C0: control; C1, C2 and C3: dietary supplementation of 5%, 8% and 10% fresh chicory forage (on dry matter base), respectively.

* DM: dry matter; CP: crude protein; IMP: inosine monophosphate.

^† SEM: standard error of the mean.

^‡ Essential amino acid including threonine, valine, methionine, isoleucine, phenylalanine, lysine and leucine.

^& Delicious amino acids including aspartic acid, serine, glutamic acid, glycine, alanine and arginine.

^a–cMeans in the same row with different superscript letters are significantly different by Tukey’s multiple comparison method (p < .05).

Table 4. Effects of dietary treatments on egg quality of Beijing-you chickens.

Item	C0*	C1	C2	C3	SEM^#	p value
Eggshell strength, kg/cm^2	4.28^a	3.68^b	3.72^b	3.70^b	0.08	.02
Eggshell thickness, mm	0.32	0.31	0.31	0.30	0.01	.51
Albumen height, mm	6.43	6.50	6.99	6.52	0.18	.70
Haugh unit	82.60	86.52	87.97	85.49	0.99	.27
Yolk colour	7.18^b	8.44^b	9.84^a	8.20^b	0.24	<.001
Egg shape index	1.33	1.31	1.33	1.27	0.01	.11
Yolk weight, g	11.47	12.35	12.19	11.50	0.16	.10
Eggshell weight, g	5.50	5.76	5.61	5.76	0.07	.49
Yolk protein, mg/g yolk	633.50	684.70	697.30	684.10	4.99	.43
Yolk lecithin, mg/g yolk	255.30	262.10	264.30	269.90	1.60	.96
Yolk cholesterol, mg/g yolk	27.10	25.00	25.80	25.30	0.23	.20
Albumen protein, mg/g albumen	815.3	855.00	854.20	855.90	3.97	.55

* C0: control; C1, C2 and C3: dietary supplementation of 5%, 8% and 10% fresh chicory forage (on dry matter base), respectively.

^# SEM: standard error of the mean.

^a–bMeans in the same row with different superscript letters are significantly different by Tukey’s multiple comparison method (p<.05).

Table 5. Effects of dietary treatments on alpha diversity of the intestinal microbiota of Beijing-you chickens.

Samples^a	Reads	Length^b	OTUs	Shannon	Chao1	Coverage
Duodenum
C0	19466	405	768	7.42	935	0.99
C1	19466	425	707	7.14	869	0.99
C2	19466	425	678	6.70	810	0.99
C3	19466	425	689	6.99	850	0.99
Ileum
C0	19466	425	690	7.26	810	0.99
C1	19466	430	594	3.51	782	0.99
C2	19466	430	649	5.83	803	0.98
C3	19466	406	315	2.03	407	0.99
Caecum
C0	19466	430	277	2.54	450	0.99
C1	19466	430	238	3.61	378	0.99
C2	19466	405	328	2.98	478	0.99
C3	19466	430	462	5.07	574	0.99

^a C0: control; C1, C2 and C3: dietary supplementation of 5%, 8% and 10% fresh chicory forage (on dry matter base), respectively.

^b Length: average read length (base pair); OTUs: number of operational taxonomic units; coverage: Good’s coverage.

Figure 1. Effects of dietary treatments on the intestinal microbiota of Beijing-you chickens at the phylum and genus levels. C0: control; C1, C2 and C3: dietary supplementation of 5%, 8% and 10% fresh chicory forage (on dry matter base), respectively.

Figure 2. Principal coordinate analysis (PCoA) of the dissimilarity between the microbial samples: PCoA plotted against the PC1 vs. PC2 axes. The percentages indicate the relative contribution of the two principal coordinates (PC1-PC2). C0: control; C1, C2 and C3: dietary supplementation of 5%, 8% and 10% fresh chicory forage (on dry matter base), respectively.