Potential use of cowpea protein hydrolysate as a dietary supplement in broiler chickens: effects on growth, intestinal morphology, muscle lipid profile, and immune status

Abstract

In the current study, we tested the effects of dietary cowpea protein hydrolysate (CPH) on broilers’ growth, carcase traits, intestinal histomorphology, The fatty acid profile of breast muscle, blood biochemical parameters, and immune status. Three-day age male Ross-308 broilers (n = 300, average weight 86.72 g ± 0.20) were distributed into five groups and fed on five diets supplied with five levels of CPH at 0, 2, 4, 6, and 8 g kg−1 for 35 days. The results revealed that dietary CPH did not change (P 0.05) changes in response to dietary CPH. Moreover, the dietary CPH levels 4–8 g kg−1 upregulated the immunostaining of IgG in the spleen of these groups. These findings suggested that including CPH in broiler diets could be an effective candidate for modulating the chickens’ metabolic and immune status; however, it had no increased effect on broiler growth.

Keywords

• broiler chicken
• enzymatic hydrolysis
• growth
• gut health
• immunohistochemistry
• protein hydrolysates