›› 2015, Vol. 42 ›› Issue (11): 2977-2983.doi: 10.16431/j.cnki.1671-7236.2015.11.023

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Effect of Partial Replacement of Corn by Dioscorea alata L.on Microflora and Short-chain Fatty Acid Content in Cecum of Wenchang Chicken

CHEN Tao1, HUANG Dong-yi1, YANG Yu-hui1, WANG Xue-mei1,2   

  1. 1. The Tropical Animal Breeding, Reproduction and Nutrition Laboratory, College of Agricultural, Hainan University, Haikou 570228, China;
    2. Key Laboratory of Tropical Biological Resources of Ministry of Education, Haikou 570228, China
  • Received:2015-05-07 Online:2015-11-20 Published:2015-11-26

Abstract: This study was conducted to investigate the effect of partial replacement of corn by Dioscorea alata L.on microflora and short-chain fatty acid content in cecum of Wenchang chicken.A total of 288 healthy Wenchang chickens at 50 days of age with the similar body weight were divided into 4 groups with 4 replicates per group and 18 chickens per replicate.Chickens in the control group were fed a basal diet (corn-soybean diet),and the others in the experimental groups (group Ⅰ,Ⅱ and Ⅲ) were fed three isonitrogenous and isoenergetic experimental diets which using Dioscorea alata L.replaced 10%,15%,20% corn,respectively.The trial lasted for 28 days.The results showed that after 14 days of feeding trials,replacement of different proportion of corn by Dioscorea alata L.could not significantly affect the microflora in cecum (P>0.05),but could significantly affect the short-chain fatty acid content (P<0.05),the contents of propanoic acid and butyric acid in group Ⅲ were significantly lower than that in control group (P<0.05).After 28 days of feeding trials,replacement of different proportion of corn by Dioscorea alata L. could significantly affect the microflora and the short-chain fatty acid content in cecum (P<0.05),the number of Escherichia coli in group Ⅱ was significantly lower than that in control group (P<0.05),and the number of Streptococcus faecalis and total anaerobic bacteria in group Ⅲ were significantly and extremely significantly higher than that in control group (P<0.05;P<0.01),respectively;The content of butyric acid and propanoic acid in group Ⅰ were significantly and extremely significantly lower than that in control group (P<0.05;P<0.01),respectively.In conclusion,partial replacement of corn by Dioscorea alata L.could promote the number of beneficial bacteria in cecum,but suppress the short-chain fatty acid content in cecum of Wenchang chicken in a relatively short time,however,no significant effect showed in the short-chain fatty acid content after 28 days of feeding.The suitable replacement proportion was 15% under this experiment conditions.

Key words: Dioscorea alata L.; corn; Wenchang chicken; microflora; short chain fatty acid

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