Intestinal morphology, brush border and digesta enzyme activities of broilers fed on a diet containing Cu²⁺-loaded montmorillonite

Abstract

1. A total of 320 1-d-old Arbor Acres broiler chicks were used to investigate the effect of Cu²⁺-loaded montmorillonite (CM) on the growth performance, intestinal morphology and activities of brush border enzyme in the intestinal mucosa and digestive enzyme in the intestinal digesta of broilers.

2. The chicks were assigned randomly into 4 groups with 80 chicks per treatment. The 4 dietary treatments were: basal diet only (control group), basal diet + 2 g montmorillonite/kg, basal diet + 1 g CM/kg, and basal diet + 2 g CM/kg. The chicks were raised in cages and feed and water were provided ad libitum for a period of 42 d.

3. The addition of CM to the diet of broilers significantly increased body weight and feed efficiency. Similarly, birds receiving montmorillonite had higher feed efficiency than the control after 42 d of feeding.

4. Data on villus height and crypt depth for duodenum, jejunum and ileum indicated that treating the diet of broilers with either CM or montmorillonite improved the mucosal morphology of the small intestine.

5. The presence of CM in the diet of broilers significantly increased the activities of maltase, aminopeptidase N and alkaline phosphatase in small intestinal mucosa. However, the activities of protease, trypsin, chymotrypsin, amylase and lipase in small intestinal digesta of broilers fed on the CM-supplemented diet were slightly higher than control values.

Acknowledgements

Financial support was obtained from the Program of the Ministry of Education of China for New Century Excellent Talents in University (No. NCET-06-0913), from the Science and Technology Foundation of the Educational Department of Ningxia of China, and from the Natural Science Foundation of Ningxia of China (No. NZ0609). We thank Hongmei Zhang, Lihong Zhou, Xiaogang Yang and Ping You for skilful technical assistance.