Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-l7hp2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T09:04:42.989Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Effect of mannanoligosaccharides supplementation on caecal microbial activity of rabbits

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 April 2010

F. Bovera*
Affiliation:
Department of Scienze Zootecniche e Ispezione degli alimenti, University of Napoli Federico II, via F. Delpino, 1, 80137 Napoli, Italy
S. Marono
Affiliation:
Department of Scienze Zootecniche e Ispezione degli alimenti, University of Napoli Federico II, via F. Delpino, 1, 80137 Napoli, Italy
C. Di Meo
Affiliation:
Department of Scienze Zootecniche e Ispezione degli alimenti, University of Napoli Federico II, via F. Delpino, 1, 80137 Napoli, Italy
G. Piccolo
Affiliation:
Department of Scienze Zootecniche e Ispezione degli alimenti, University of Napoli Federico II, via F. Delpino, 1, 80137 Napoli, Italy
F. Iannaccone
Affiliation:
Department of Scienze Zootecniche e Ispezione degli alimenti, University of Napoli Federico II, via F. Delpino, 1, 80137 Napoli, Italy
A. Nizza
Affiliation:
Department of Scienze Zootecniche e Ispezione degli alimenti, University of Napoli Federico II, via F. Delpino, 1, 80137 Napoli, Italy
*
Get access

Abstract

A total of 200 weaned (35 days) hybrid Hyla rabbits were randomly divided among five groups housed in bicellular cages (20 cages per group). Between 35 and 60 days of age, the groups were submitted to the following treatments: group ANT (positive control) fed a basal diet supplemented with antibiotics (colistin sulphate, 144 mg/kg; tylosin, 100 mg/kg; and oxytetracyclin, 1000 mg/kg); groups MOS_0.5, MOS_1.0 and MOS_1.5 fed the basal diet supplemented with 0.5, 1.0 and 1.5 g/kg mannanoligosaccharides (MOS), respectively; another group fed the basal diet without antibiotics or mannanoligosaccarides supplementation (negative control). Along the trial, an episode of epizootyc rabbit enteropathy occurs so that in the control group mortality rate was very high (78%) and survivor rabbits showed severe symptoms of disease (diarrhoea). Thus, the control group was discarded from the trial. At 60 days of age, samples of caecal content were collected from 10 rabbits per group and used as inocula for an in vitro gas production trial. At the end of fermentation (120 h of incubation), organic matter digestibility (OMd), cumulative gas production, fermentation kinetics, pH, volatile fatty acid (VFA) and NH3 productions were measured. Inoculum from MOS_1.0 rabbits showed the significant higher values of OMd (64.21%, P < 0.05), gas production (262.32 ml/g, P < 0.05), acetate (96.99 mmol/g OM, P < 0.05) and butyrate (26.21 mmol/g OM, P < 0.05) than the other groups. Slight differences were recorded among the groups ANT, MOS_0.5 and MOS_1.5. In addition, branched chain acids, in proportion to total VFAs, were significantly higher in MOS_1.0 inoculum (0.04, P < 0.05). MOS are able to affect fermentation activity of caecal micro-organism, but their activities seem not proportional to their level in the diet.

Type
Full Paper
Copyright
Copyright © The Animal Consortium 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Association of Official Analytical Chemists 2004. Official methods of analysis, vol. 2., 18th edition, AOAC, Arlington, VA, USA.Google Scholar
Bauer, E, Williams, BA, Voigt, C, Mosenthin, R, Verstegen, MWA 2001. Microbial activities of faeces from unweaned pigs in relation to selected fermentable carbohydrates. Animal Science 73, 313322.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bovera, F, D’Urso, S, Di Meo, C, Piccolo, G, Calabrò, S, Nizza, A 2006. Comparison of rabbit caecal content and rabbit hard faeces as source of inoculum for the in vitro gas production technique. Asian–Australian Journal of Animal Sciences 11, 16491657.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bovera, F, D’Urso, S, Calabrò, S, Tudisco, R, Di Meo, C, Nizza, A 2007. Use of faeces as an alternative inoculum to caecal content to study in vitro feed digestibility in domesticated ostriches (Struthio camelus var. domesticus). British Poultry Science 48, 354362.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bovera, F, Calabrò, S, Cutrignelli, MI, Infascelli, F, Piccolo, G, Nizza, S, Tudisco, R, Nizza, A 2008. Prediction of rabbit caecal fermentation characteristics from faeces by in vitro gas production technique: roughages. Journal of Animal Physiology and Animal Nutrition 92, 260271.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bovera, F, D’Urso, S, Di Meo, C, Tudisco, R, Nizza, A 2009. A model to assess the use of caecal and faecal inocula to study fermentability of nutrients in rabbit. Journal of Animal Physiology and Animal Nutrition 93, 147156.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bovera, F, Nizza, S, Marono, S, Maliardo, K, Piccolo, G, Tudisco, R, De Martino, L, Nizza, A 2010. Effect of mannan oligosaccharides on rabbit performance, digestibility and rectal bacterial anaerobic populations during an episode of epizootic rabbit enteropathy. World Rabbit Science (in press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Casagrande-Proietti, P, Dal Bosco, A, Hilbert, F, Franciosini, MP, Castellini, C 2009. Evaluation of intestinal bacterial flora of conventional and organic broilers using culture-based methods. Italian Journal of Animal Science 8, 5163.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dewree, R, Licois, D, Coudert, P, Lassence, C, Vindevogel, Hand Marlier, D 2003. L’entéropathie épizootique du lapin (EEL): étude du rôle des infections par Clostridium perfringens dans l’étio-pathogénie de ce syndrome. In Proc 10èmes Journées de la Recherche Cunicole, ITAVI Ed., Paris, France, 251–254.Google Scholar
10.EC Council 2003. Regulation on additives for use in animal nutrition. No. 1831/2003/EC 22 September 2003.Official Journal of European Community, L 268/29. Retrived October 18, 2003, from http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2003:268:0029:0043:EN:PDFGoogle Scholar
Falcao-e-Cunha, L, Castro-Solla, L, Maertens, L, Marounek, M, Pinheiro, V, Freire, J, Mourao, JL 2007. Alternatives to antibiotics growth promoters in rabbit feeding: a review. World Rabbit Science 15, 127140.Google Scholar
Firon, N, Ofek, I, Sharon, N 1983. Carbohydrate specificity of the surface lectins of Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, and Salmonella typhimurium. Carbohydrate Research 120, 235249.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fonseca, AP, Falcao, L, Kocher, A Spring, P 2004. Effect of dietary mannan oligosaccharide in comparison to oxitetracyclin on performance of growing rabbits. In Proceedings 8th World Rabbit Congress, Puebla, Mexico, C. Becerril and A. Pro (ed.), Puebla, Mexico, pp. 829–833.Google Scholar
Gidenne, T 1996. Nutritional and ontogenic factors affecting the rabbit caeco-colic digestive physiology. In Proceedings of the 6th World Rabbit Congress (ed. F Lebas ), pp. 1328. INRA, Toulouse.Google Scholar
Griggs, JP, Jacob, JP 2005. Alternatives to antibiotics for organic poultry production. Journal of Applied Poultry Research 14, 750756.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Groot, JCJ, Cone, JW, Williams, BA, Debrasques, FMA, Lantinga, EA 1996. Multiphasic analysis of gas production kinetics for in vitro fermentation of ruminants feed. Animal Feed Science and Technology 64, 7789.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Groot, JC, Williams, BA, Oostdam, AJ, Boer, H, Tamminga, S 1998. The use of cumulative gas and volatile fatty acid production to predict in vitro fermentation kinetics of Italian ryegrass leaf cell walls and contents at various time intervals. The British Journal of Nutrition 79, 519525.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Guedes, CM, Mourao, JL, Silva, SR, Gomes, MJ, Rodrigues, MAM, Pinheiro, V 2009. Effect of age and mannanoligosaccharides supplementation on production and volatile fatty acids in the caecum of rabbits. Animal Feed Science and Technology 150, 330336.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kocher, A 2006. Interfacing gut health and nutrition: the use of dietary pre and probiotics to maximize growth performance in pigs and poultry. In Antimicrobial growth promoters (ed. D Barug, J de Jong, AK Kies and MWA Verstegen), pp. 289310. Wageningen Academic Publishers, The Netherlands.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marty, J, Vernay, M 1984. Absorption and metabolism of the volatile fatty acids in the hindgut of the rabbit. The Journal of Nutrition 51, 265277.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mourao, JL, Pinheiro, V, Alves, A, Guedes, CM, Pinto, L, Saavedra, MJ, Spring, P, Kocher, A 2006. Effect of mannan oligosaccharides on the performance, intestinal morphology and caecal fermentation of fattening rabbits. Animal Feed Science and Technology 126, 107120.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peeters, JE, Maertens, L, Orsenigo, R, Colin, M 1995. Influence of dietary beet pulp on caecal VFA, experimental colibacillosis and iota-enterotoxaemia in rabbits. Animal Feed Science and Technology 51, 123139.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pinheiro, V, Alves, A, Mourao, JL, Guedes, CM, Pinto, L, Spring, P, Kocher, A 2004. Effect of mannan oligosaccharides on the ileal morphometry and caecal fermentation of growing rabbits. In Proceedings of the eighth World Rabbit Congress. Puebla, Mexico, pp. 936–941.Google Scholar
Pinheiro, V, Guedes, CM, Outor-Monteiro, D, Mourao, JL 2009. Effect of fibre level and dietary mannanoligosaccharides on digestibility, caecal volatile fatty acids and performances of growing rabbits. Animal Feed Science and Technology 148, 288300.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
SAS 2000. SAS/STAT users guide: statistics. SAS Institute Inc., Cary, NC, USA.Google Scholar
Searle, PL 1984. The berthelot or indophenol reaction and its use in the analytical chemistry of nitrogen. A review. Analyst 109, 549568.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Spring, P, Wenk, C, Dawson, KA, Newman, KE 2000. The effects of dietary mannanoligosaccharides on caecal parameters and the concentrations of enteric bacteria in the ceca of salmonella-challenged broiler chicks. Poultry Science 79, 205211.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Stanco, G, Di Meo, C, Piccolo, G, Nizza, A 2003. Effect of storage duration on frozen inoculum to be used for the in vitro gas production technique in rabbit. Italian Journal of Animal Science 2, 265270.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Theodorou, MK 1993. A new laboratory procedure for determining the fermentation kinetics of ruminants feeds. Ciencia e Investigacion Agraria 20, 332344.Google Scholar
Theodorou, MK, Williams, BA, Dhanoa, MS, McAllan, AB, France, J 1994. A simple gas production method using pressure transducer to determine the fermentation kinetics of ruminant feeds. Animal Feed Science and Technology 48, 185197.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ungerfeld, EM, Kohn, AN 2006. The role of thermodynamics in the control of ruminal fermentation. In Ruminant physiology (ed. K Sejrsen, T Hvelpund and MO Nielsen), pp. 5585. Wageningen Acedemic Publishers, The Netherlands.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Van Soest, PJ 1993. Cell wall matrix interactions and degradation – Session synopsis. In Forage cell wall structure and digestibility (ed. HG Jung, DR Buxton, RD Hatfield and J Ralph), p. 377. ASA-CSSA-SSSA, Madison, WI.Google Scholar
Van Soest, PJ 1994. Nutritional ecology of the ruminant, 2nd edition. Comstock Publishing Associates, Ithaca, NY, pp. 354370.CrossRefGoogle Scholar