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Benefit of Dietary Supplementation with Bacillus subtilis BYS2 on Growth Performance, Immune Response, and Disease Resistance of Broilers

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Abstract

A strain of Bacillus subtilis (B. subtilis) BYS2 was previously isolated from Mount Tai, which is located in Tai’an City in the Shandong Province of China. The strain was then stored in the Environmental Microbiology Laboratory at Shandong Agricultural University. To evaluate the effect of the bacterium preparation in broiler production, we fed the bacterium (106 CFU/g) to 1-day-old broilers and continued this feeding for 6 weeks to analyze its effect on growth and immune performance. We found that the average weight of the bacterium-fed group increased by 17.19% at weeks 5 compared to the control group (P < 0.05). The height of the villi in the duodenum and jejunum and the ratio of villi to crypt were significantly increased in the bacterium-fed group at weeks 5 (P < 0.05). Also, the IgG in the serum of broilers in the experimental group increased by 31.60% (P < 0.05) and IgM 30.52% (P < 0.05) compared with those in the control group. The expressions of the major pattern recognition receptors (PRRs), antiviral proteins, pro-inflammatory cytokines, and β-defensins were significantly higher than those in the control group (P < 0.05). Meanwhile, the bursa immune organ indices of broilers in the experimental group were significantly higher than those in the control group (P < 0.05). Also, after 5 weeks of continuous feeding, when infected with Escherichia coli (E. coli) O1K1 and Newcastle disease virus (NDV) F48E8, the content of bacteria and virus in tissues and organs of the experimental group decreased significantly, and the survival rate of infected chickens increased by 31.1% and 17.7%, respectively (P < 0.05). These results show that the anti-infective B. subtilis BYS2 could, to some extent, replace antibiotics to promote growth, improve innate immunity, and enhance disease resistance in broilers.

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Funding

This study was sponsored by the key research project of Shandong Province “Research of a new probiotics for anti-infection, environmental improvement and alternative antibiotic and their products development” (2016GNC110014).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Animal Science and Veterinary Medicine, Shandong Agricultural University, St, Taishan, Tai’an, Shandong, China

    Yunxiang Dong, Rong Li, Yu Liu, Lianying Ma, Tongjie Chai & Bo Wu

  2. Key Laboratory of Animal Bioengineering and Animal Disease of Shandong Province, Sino-German Cooperative Research Centre for Zoonosis of Animal Origin Shandong Province, 61 Daizong Road,, Tai’an, 271000, Shandong Province, China

    Rong Li, Yu Liu, Lianying Ma, Tongjie Chai & Bo Wu

  3. Shandong Jihua Poultry Breeding Co., Ltd., Rizhao, China

    Jihua Zha & Xibo Qiao

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  1. Yunxiang Dong
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Contributions

YD and RL designed and conducted the study, performed most of the experiments, and wrote the manuscript. LM and YL performed the calculation. JZ and XQ collected samples. BW and TC discussed the results and revised the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Tongjie Chai or Bo Wu.

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Dong, Y., Li, R., Liu, Y. et al. Benefit of Dietary Supplementation with Bacillus subtilis BYS2 on Growth Performance, Immune Response, and Disease Resistance of Broilers. Probiotics & Antimicro. Prot. 12, 1385–1397 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12602-020-09643-w

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