The Influence of Chicken Egg Lysozyme or Zinc-Bacitracin Antibiotic on the Growth Performance, Antibacterial Capacity, Blood Profiles, and Antioxidative Status of Rabbits: A Comparative Study

Abstract

Dietary egg lysozyme has beneficial roles in the growth performance and health conditions of animals. The study was performed using 90 multicolored rabbits in three groups (each replicate with thirty rabbits). In the control group, rabbits were fed a diet without zinc bacitracin (ZnB) or egg lysozyme, while the second and third groups were treated with ZnB and lysozyme additive at 100 mg/kg, respectively. After eight weeks, the final weight and body weight gain (BWG) of rabbits fed dietary egg lysozyme and ZnB additives were meaningfully increased (p p p Clostridium spp. and Escherichia coli (p Lactobacillus and total bacteria were meaningfully increased in the the intestines of rabbits treated with egg lysozyme and ZnB (p p p p SOD1) and glutathione peroxidase (GPX) in the liver of rabbits fed dietary egg lysozyme and ZnB additives were markedly upregulated (p SOD1 and GPX genes than rabbits treated with ZnB (p < 0.05). In conclusion, the inclusion of egg lysozyme could replace the inclusion of ZnB in the diets of rabbits.

Keywords

• feed additives
• antibiotics
• rabbits
• growth performance
• gene expression