China Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Medicine ›› 2021, Vol. 48 ›› Issue (9): 3242-3253.doi: 10.16431/j.cnki.1671-7236.2021.09.015

• Animal Nutrition and Feed Science • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Effects of Astragalus membranaceus and Dextran Sodium Sulfate Stimulation on Intestinal Hindgut Fermentation and Microbial Composition of Lambs

TIAN Quanhua1,2, ZHAO Xu1, LIU Yong2, WEI Lingyun1, TAN Zhiliang2,3, HE Zhixiong2,3   

  1. 1. School of Environmental Ecology and Biological Engineering, Wuhan Institute of Technology, Wuhan 430205, China;
    2. Key Laboratory of Agro-Ecological Processes in Subtropical Region, National Engineering Laboratory for Pollution Control and Waste Utilization in Livestock and Poultry Production, Hunan Research Center of Livestock & Poultry Sciences, South-Central Experimental Station of Animal Nutrition and Feed Science in the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Hunan Provincial Key Laboratory of Animal Nutrition & Physiology and Metabolism, Institute of Subtropical Agriculture, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changsha 410125, China;
    3. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
  • Received:2021-02-08 Online:2021-09-20 Published:2021-09-17

Abstract: This study was aimed to evaluate the effects of Astragalus membranaceus (AP) and dextran sulfate sodium (DSS) on hindgut fermentation and microbial composition of lambs. The experiment was divided into two stages:Before and after DSS stimulation. In the first stage, 36 healthy, weaned Xiangdong Black goats with similar body weight (5.2 kg±2.0 kg) at 42 days old were randomly assigned to control group (CON, n=16;basic diet) and Astragalus group (AP, n=20;basic diet supplemented with 10 g/d). Lambs were slaughtered (except for 6 lambs selected in each group in the second stage, the rest were all slaughtered) after 36 days of feeding (including 7 days of pre feeding period), cecal tissue and chyme were collected to evaluate the effect of supplementing AP on hindgut fermentation and microbial composition. In the second stage, on the 36th day of the experiment, six lambs in CON group and AP group were randomly selected for DSS stimulation (4% body weight dose group). 8 days after stimulation, all lambs were slaughtered, and cecal tissue and chyme were collected to evaluate the hindgut fermentation and microbial composition changes after DSS stimulation. The results showed that:①Compared with CON group, the caecum fermentation parameters and microbial composition of AP group were not significantly different (P>0.05). ②Compared with the pre-DSS, acetate concentration was decreased while the butyrate was significantly increased in the DSS (P<0.05). ③Compared with the pre-DSS, the copy number of total bacteria and Clostridium cluster XIVa in tissue in the DSS was increased (P<0.05), but the copy number of Clostridium cluster XIVa and Lactobacillus in the chyme were decreased (P<0.05). ④The 16S rDNA amplicon sequencing results showed that the relative abundance of Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes was more than 80% in all groups, followed by Proteobacteria and Tenericutes. No significant difference was observed in hindgut microbial composition between different treatment groups (P>0.05). ⑤A significant correlation between short chain fatty acids concentration and carbohydrate utilizing bacteria were observed. In conclusion, these results provided evidence that AP inclusion in the diet of lambs had no significant effect on the hindgut fermentation and microbial composition (P>0.05). In contrast, the addition of DSS in the diet could reduce acetate concentrations and the number of beneficial bacteria, change the relative abundance of bacteria at the genus level.

Key words: Astragalus membranaceus; lambs; intestinal fermentation parameters; microbial diversity

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