The Effect Of Macleaya Alkaloids On The Growth Of Yellow Broilers

Macleaya includes a variety of alkaloids with activity, which has a broad application prospects in animal production. Three trials were conducted to discuss the mechanism of macleaya alkaloids on promoting growth of broilers, study the effects of macleaya alkaloids on growth performance, blood biochemical parameters, carcass traits, organ indices, meat quality, intestinal microflora and intestinal structure and other implications in broiler chickens.Trial 1 was used to study the effects of macleaya alkaloids on growth performance, blood biochemical parameters, carcass composition and meat quality in chicks. Average daily gain and feed conversion were not affected by macleaya alkaloids (P>0.05). Average daily feed intake were significantly (P<0.05) elevated in chicks fed macleaya alkaloids than the control group and the antibiotic group in the late trial and whole experiment period. Comparing to antibiotic group, the activities of ALT,AST,LDH and the content of UN were reduced, but it had no significant difference (P>0.05). The activities of ALP were remarkably decreased by 6.65% during the period from 0 to 21 days. Chicks fed macleaya alkaloids had significantly increased proportions of breast muscle to live body weight were significantly (P<0.01) elevated and significantly increased (P<0.05) proportions of leg muscle to live body weight during the period from 0 to 21 days. After 42 days' macleaya alkaloids intake, Proportions of breast muscle to live body weight were significantly (P<0.05) increased in chicks compared with chicks given control diet and antibiotic diet, proportions of leg muscle to live body weight were significantly (P<0.05) increased in chicks compared with chicks given control diet and significantly (P<0.01) increased in chicks compared with chicks given antibiotic diet. The results show that feeding macleaya alkaloids can improve the quality of chicken carcass. PH values of breast and drip loss were not different among treatments, but have the downward trend. Comparing to control group, malondialdehyde (MDA) content during cold storage were decreased (P<0.01) in breast muscle from chicks fed macleaya alkaloids. The results indicated that macleaya alkaloids can reduce the drip loss of breast muscle and MDA formation during cold storage, and extend the shelf life of chicken.Trial 2 was conducted to study the effects of macleaya alkaloids on the intestinal morphological structure and gut flora in chickens. The results suggest that the number of e.coli were not different compared with chicks given antibiotic group, and lower than the control group, but significantly (P<0.05) increased the number of lactobacillus counts in jejunum in chicks compared with antibiotic group. Comparing to control group, the macleaya alkaloids group can improve morphological development of jejunum villi, the jejunum villi height have improving trend, but no significant difference (P>0.05). The jejunum crypt depth of macleaya alkaloids group is lower than the control group and antibiotic group (P>0.05). Chicks fed macleaya alkaloids had significantly (P<0.05) increased the ratio of villus height to crypt depth compared with chicks given control diet. The results indicated that macleaya alkaloids can promote the proliferation of certain probiotics, directly or indirectly inhibit the growth of harmful bacteria, promote the development of intestinal villi morphology in chicken, enhance the function of digestion and absorption of the small intestine, and then improve animal production efficiency.Trial 3 was employed to study the inhibitive effects of macleaya alkaloids on bacteria in vitro. The results showed that macleaya sanguinarine has strong antibacterial activity to the rest of the Bacteria strains except e.coli, specifically strongest antibacterial activity against Salmonella. Comparing to sodium penicillin, sanguinarine marked inhibitory effect, toward staphylococcus aureus bacteria and e.coli in the antimicrobial effect were higher than penicillin sodium. To staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli, sanguinarine has less antibacterial activity, but antibacterial effect of other bacteria stronger. The minimum inhibitory concentration against pasteurella less than 15ug/ml, the minimum inhibitory concentration of salmonella was 1.56ug/ml, antibacterial activity was stronger than penicillin, its antibacterial is wide range, and effect is obvious. The results indicated that macleaya sanguinarine has strong antibacterial activity against cocci and bacilli, Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria, and antibacterial activity against salmonella was stronger than penicillin.