Effects of Mink-Origin <i>Enterococcus faecium</i> on Growth Performance, Antioxidant Capacity, Immunity, and Intestinal Microbiota of Growing Male Minks

Abstract

The purpose of this experiment was to explore the effects of dietary Enterococcus faecium (EF) on the growth performance, antioxidant capacity, immunity, and intestinal microbiota of growing male minks. A total of 60 male Regal White minks at 12 weeks of age were randomly assigned to two groups, each with 15 replicates of two minks per replicate. The minks in two groups were fed the basal diets and the basal diets with viable Enterococcus faecium (more than 107 cfu/kg of diet), respectively. Compared with the minks in control, Enterococcus faecium minks had heavier body weight (BW) at week 4 and week 8 of the study (p p Enterococcus faecium increased the apparent digestibility of crude protein (CP) and dry matter (DM) compared to the control (p Enterococcus faecium enhanced the serum superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity and decreased the malondialdehyde (MDA) contents (p Enterococcus faecium increased the levels of serum immunoglobulin A (IgA), immunoglobulin G (IgG), and the concentrations of secretory immunoglobulin A (SIgA) in the jejunal mucosa while decreasing the interleukin-8 (IL-8) and interleukin-1β (IL-1β) levels in the jejunal mucosa (p Enterococcus faecium increased the species numbers at the OUT level. Compared with the control, Enterococcus faecium had significant effects on the relative abundance of Paraclostridium, Brevinema, and Comamonas (p Enterococcus faecium could improve the growth performance, increase the antioxidant capacity, improve the immunity of growing male minks, and also modulate the gut microbiota.

Keywords

• mink
• <i>Enterococcus faecium</i>
• growth performance
• antioxidant capacity
• immunity
• intestinal flora