Antibiotics (Jul 2023)

Dietary Palygorskite-Based Antibacterial Agent Supplementation as an Alternative to Antibiotics Improves Growth Performance, Blood Parameters, and Rumen Microbiota in Sheep

  • Shujie Li,
  • Yue Liu,
  • Hanfang Zeng,
  • Chanjian Wang,
  • Zhaoyu Han

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/antibiotics12071144
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 12, no. 7
p. 1144

Abstract

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This research aimed to investigate the effects of a palygorskite-based antibacterial agent (PAA) as an alternative to antibiotics on growth performance, blood parameters, and rumen microbiota in sheep. A total of 120 sheep were randomly divided into five groups of six replicates with four sheep each. Sheep were fed a basal diet, an antibiotic diet supplemented with 500 g/t chlortetracycline (CTC), and a basal diet supplemented with 500, 1000, and 2000 g/t PAA for 80 d, respectively. Supplementation with 2000 g/t PAA and 500 g/t CTC increased the average daily gain (ADG) of sheep compared with the control group (p p p p p p > 0.05). At the phylum level, the relative abundance of Proteobacteria was lower in the PAA 2000 and CTC 500 groups than in the control and PAA 500 groups (p p p < 0.05) was higher in the PAA 2000 group than in the control group. These findings indicate that dietary supplementation with PAA has ameliorative effects on growth performance, blood parameters, and rumen microbiota, with an optimal dosage of 2000 g/t for sheep.

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