Effects of Dietary Supplementation of gEGF on the Growth Performance and Immunity of Broilers
Jianyong Zhou,
Jingyi Yao,
Luhong Bai,
Chuansong Sun,
Jianjun Lu
Affiliations
Jianyong Zhou
Hainan Institute of Zhejiang University, Yongyou Industry Park, Yazhou Bay Sci-Tech City, Sanya 572000, China
Jingyi Yao
Key Laboratory of Molecular Animal Nutrition (Zhejiang University), Ministry of Education, Key Laboratory of Animal Feed and Nutrition of Zhejiang Province, Institute of Feed Science, College of Animal Science, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China
Luhong Bai
Key Laboratory of Molecular Animal Nutrition (Zhejiang University), Ministry of Education, Key Laboratory of Animal Feed and Nutrition of Zhejiang Province, Institute of Feed Science, College of Animal Science, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China
Chuansong Sun
Key Laboratory of Molecular Animal Nutrition (Zhejiang University), Ministry of Education, Key Laboratory of Animal Feed and Nutrition of Zhejiang Province, Institute of Feed Science, College of Animal Science, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China
Jianjun Lu
Key Laboratory of Molecular Animal Nutrition (Zhejiang University), Ministry of Education, Key Laboratory of Animal Feed and Nutrition of Zhejiang Province, Institute of Feed Science, College of Animal Science, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China
EGF has been shown to stimulate the growth of animals. In this study, the content of EGF in chicken embryos (gallus EGF, gEGF) aged from 1 to 20 days of incubation were determined by ELISA kit, and the 5-day-old chicken embryos with the highest content of 5593 pg/g were selected to make gEGF crude extracts. A total of 1500 1-day-old Xianju chickens were randomly divided into five groups with six replicates of 50 chickens each. The control group was fed a basal diet, and other treatment diets were supplemented with 4, 8, 16 and 32 ng/kg gEGF crude extract, respectively. The experiment lasted for 30 days. Chicks were harvested at the end of the experiment, and liver, spleen, thymus, bursa and serum samples were collected. Results showed that average daily gain (ADG) and average daily feed intake (ADFI) of 16 ng/kg group were higher than those in the control group (p p p p p p < 0.01). These findings demonstrate that the crude extract of gEGF prepared in this experiment could improve the growth performance, antioxidant capacity and immunity of broilers.
