Dietary Saccharomyces cerevisiae improves intestinal flora structure and barrier function of Pekin ducks

This study aimed at investigating the effects of dietary Saccharomyces cerevisiae (SC) on the intestinal flora structure and barrier function of Pekin duck. A total of 180 1-day-old Pekin ducks were randomly divided into 3 groups with 6 replicates in each group and 10 birds per replicate. The birds in the control group (CON) were fed the basal diet, and those in the experi-mental group were fed the basal diets supplemented with 600 mg/kg SC (LSC) and 1,200 mg/kg (HSC), respec-tively. The trial lasted for 42 d. Results showed that LSC and HSC treatments tended to improve the feed conver-sion efficiency during the trial. The ileum length of birds in the LSC and HSC groups was elevated. Additionally, with 600mg/kg SC supplemented, the mRNA levels of vil-lin, claudin3, and MUC 2 in d21 were up-regulated, as well as the mRNA levels of villin, claudin3, occludin, i-FABP, ZO-1, and MUC 2 in d42. In addition, dietary SC supplementation improved the a-diversity of the bacteria in cecal chyme and tended to increase the abundance (RA) of Bacteroidetes (P = 0.071). Besides, the RA of Ruminococcaceae_UCG-014 was raised in the LSC group. Beyond that, the RA of Proteobacteria was descended with two levels of SC added. In conclusion, die-tary Saccharomyces cerevisiae, particularly at 600 mg/kg level, improved the intestinal flora structure and barrier function of Pekin duck.

Automated summary

This study aimed to investigate the effects of dietary Saccharomyces cerevisiae (SC) on the intestinal flora structure and barrier function of Pekin duck. The results showed that dietary SC supplementation improved feed conversion efficiency, increased ileum length, improved bacterial diversity and abundance, and up-regulated the expression of certain genes related to intestinal barrier function.