Intestinal Development and Function of Broiler Chickens on Diets Supplemented with Clinoptilolite

Birds, housing and diets

A total of 240 d-old Arbor Acres male broiler chicks were allocated to three dietary treatments in a randomized complete block design for 42 d, each of which was replicated three times with 10 broilers per replicate. The dietary treatments were: i) basal diet, ii) basal diet+2% NCLI, iii) basal diet+2% MCLI. All birds were housed in wire cages in a 3-level battery, and housed in pens of identical size (1.75×6 m) in a deep litter system.

All the procedures were approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee of the Nanjing Agricultural University. Birds were housed in an environmentally controlled room. The initial temperature of 32°C was gradually reduced according to the age of the birds, reaching 20°C at the end of the experiment. The lighting cycle was 24 h from 1 to 3 d of age, 18 h from 4 to 20 d of age, 21 h from 21 to 35 d of age, and 23 h from 35 to 42 d of age.

The basal diets were of the maize-soya bean type. Broilers were fed a starter diet from d 1 to 21 and a grower diet from d 22 to 42 (Table 1). The diets were formulated in accordance with the NRC (1994) guidelines to meet the nutrient requirements of broilers. Diet compositions are shown in Table 3. Fresh diets were prepared once a week and were stored in sealed bags at 4°C.

Table 1.

Formulation and calculated composition of broiler diets (on fed basis)

Table 3.

Effects of NCLI (2%) and MCLI (2%) on the relative length (cm/kg) and relative weights (g/kg) of small intestine in broilers

The NCLI used in this study was collected from the Center of China Geological Survey (Nanjing). The grain-size distributions for the samples studied were 0.15 to 0.2 mm. For modification of natural CLI, the starting material was calcined in a muffle oven at 400°C for 4 h, and formic acid was gently stirred in to ensure good dispersion. The mixture was repeatedly washed with deionized water. After stirring, the sample was allowed to settle. The sediment was oven-dried at 65°C for 2 h, then ground in an agate mortar and sieved through a 100-mesh.

Performance and the length and weight of intestinal segments

During the overall experimental period, weights of chicks were measured weekly. Feed supplied and feed leftover were weighed on the same days as above, to calculate the feed intake (FI) and feed/gain ratio (F/G). Mortalities were recorded daily and were used to adjust the total number of birds by the end of 42 d, to determine the feed intake and F/G of the broilers. At the end of each experimental period (21 or 42 d), 8 broilers per group (one bird per replicate) from each treatment were randomly selected and weighed after feed deprivation for 12 h, were slaughtered. Then, the intestinal segments were excised. The small intestine was divided into 3 segments: duodenum (from gizzard outlet to the end of the pancreatic loop), jejunum (from the pancreatic loop to Meckel’s diverticulum), and ileum (from Meckel’s diverticulum to the cecum junction). The contents of the duodenum, jejunum, and ileum (aseptically) were emptied by gentle pressure, then the length and weight were recorded.

Morpholoical measurement of the jejunal and ileal mucosa

Three cross-sections for each intestinal segment (jejunum and ileum) were fixed with formalin solution and were prepared using standard paraffin embedding procedures by sectioning at 5 μm thickness, and staining with hematoxylin and eosin. A total of 15 intact, well-oriented crypt-villus units were measured in each type of tissue from each broiler. Villus height and crypt depth were determined using an image processing and analyzing system (version 6.0, Image-Pro Plus), and were expressed as micrometers (μm).

Digestive enzyme activities of intestinal contents

The samples of duodenum, jejunum, and ileum contents (0.2 g) were homogenized with 4 ml icecold saline (0.9% NaCl). The digesta sample were stored immediately at −70°C until it be used. The small intestinal digesta samples were diluted 10×, based on the sample weight, with ice-cold PBS (pH 7.0), homogenized for 60 s, and sonicated for 1 min with three cycles at 30 s intervals. The sample was then centrifuged at 6,000 g for 15 min at 4°C. The supernatants were divided into small portions and stored at −70°C for assay of enzyme assays. Protease, trypsin, chymotrypsin and amylase were measured according to the methods described by Lhoste et al. (1993).

Statistical analysis

Analyses of variance were performed using the General Linear Model procedure of statistical package for social sciences 18.0 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA) as a completely randomized design. Results are presented as mean±standard error of the mean (SEM). The significant differences among different treatment means were investigated using Duncan’s new multiple range test. Effects were considered significant at p<0.05.

Effects of NCLI (2%) and MCLI (2%) on the growth performance of broilers

The effects of the dietary treatments on broiler chicks’ feed intake, average body weight gain (BWG), and F/G data in the periods of starter, grower, and the whole trial are presented in Table 2. It can be seen that no significant differences were observed between treatments from 1 to 42 d.

Table 2.

Effects of NCLI (2%) and MCLI (2%) on the growth performance of broilers

In the present study, the results presented in Table 2 show that adding NCLI and MCLI to the diets of broilers from 1 to 42 d of age produced no significant differences in terms of BWG, F/G. These findings are in agreement with those of Evans (1989), who concluded from several experiments that CLI had no consistent beneficial effects. Similarly, the lack of response exhibited by BWG with CLI supplementation concurs with previous reports by Olver (1989), Elliot and Edwards (1991) and Zhou (2008). But some researchers reported that the supplementation of CLI to the diet improves the health status and body weight gain as well as feed efficiency of the animals (Ly et al., 2007). The expected effects of zeolites (CLI) may exhibit variation due to such factors as nature, purity, concentration, particle distribution, the CLI content of the zeolite and formulation composition in the diet. Moreover, Shariatmadari (2008) consider as this phenomenadepending on the aims and objectives of the experimental programme.

No effects of diet on mortality were detected in the present study. These findings suggested that further research regarding CLI as a feed additive is required. Numerous reports indicated that CLI is harmless, by including CLI into mixed feed; it is well tolerated by the animals and improves the production characteristics of broilers (Elliot and Edwards, 1991; Trckova et al., 2004).

Effects of NCLI and MCLI on the relative length, weights of intestine and morphology (μm) of intestinal mucosa in broilers

The effects of dietary NCLI and MCLI on the relative length and weight of small intestine in broilers are shown in Table 3. Broilers were pretreated with NCLI or MCLI, there was no dietary effect on the relative length and weight of duodenum, jejunum and ileum (p>0.05) in the period of 1 to 21. Moreover, there was no significant influence on the relative length of duodenum and ileum (p>0.05), and the relative weights of ileum (p>0.05) in the period of 22 to 42. When broilers were treated with MCLI, the relative length and weight of jejunum were significant increased (p<0.05). However, the relative weight of duodenum in the NCLI group were significantly lower than the control group and the MCLI group (p<0.05), and those of the MCLI group were significantly lower than the control group (p<0.05).

Morphological measurements of jejunal and ileal mucosae are presented in Table 4. During the overall experimental period the villus height in the jejunal mucosa in the MCLI group were higher (p<0.05) than those of the control group and NCLI group. The villus heights in the jejunal mucosa in the NCLI group were greater (p<0.05) than those in the control group, but they were lower (p<0.05) than in the MCLI group. The villus height in the ileal mucosae of chicks receiving the NCLI and MCLI in the feed was significantly greater than in the control group (p<0.05), but there were no significant differences between the two groups (p>0.05) during the overall experimental period. Supplementation with NCLI and MCLI had no significant (p>0.05) influence on the crypt depth in the jejunal and ileal mucosa compared with the controls during the overall experimental period. During the overall experimental period, the MCLI-supplemented group differed significantly from the control group in terms of the villus height to crypt depth ratio in the jejunal and ileal mucosa (p<0.05).The villus height to crypt depth ratio in the NCLI group was not significantly different from either the control group or the MCLI group (p>0.05).

Table 4.

Effects of NCLI (2%) and MCLI (2%) on the morphology (μm) of the intestinal mucosa in broilers

The present study showed change in the relative weight of the jejunum in birds fed with NCLI or MCLI supplemented diet (p<0.05). These may be associated with slower passage of ingest through the digestive tract, and the jejunum utilized the limited nutrients for its growth with higher priority over body weight increase. Greater villus heights in the jejunal and ileal mucosa indicate that the function of the intestinal villi was increased (Ruttanavut and Yamauchi, 2010). In the present study, increases were observed in villus height and villus height to crypt depth ratio in the small intestinal mucosa of the broiler chicks supplemented with NCLI and MCLI. These results are in agreement with the findings of Tatar et al. (2008), who suggest that zeolite can stimulate villi of the small intestine. Such improvement in the morphology of the intestinal mucosa may be explained by the lower numbers of E. coli and Salmonella. It is reported that NCLI, a mucus stabilizer, effectively acts by attaching to the mucus to reinforce the intestinal mucosal barrier, and helps in the regeneration of the epithelium, therefore reducing intestinal colonization and infectious processes. This ultimately decreases inflammatory processes at the intestinal mucosa, thus increasing villus height and secretory activity (Loddi et al., 2004). Furthermore, increased villus size was also associated with activated cell proliferation in the crypt (Lauronen et al., 1998). In conclusion, the present results and related literature suggested that these intestine morphological changes might be induced by improved jejumum and ileum lumen due to adsorptive function of the crystal structural cavities of CLI (Khambualai et al., 2009), because a crystal structure of CLI is thought to induce epithelial cell generation in broilers (Mumpton and Fishman, 1977).

Effects of NCLI (2%) and MCLI (2%) on the activities of digestive enzymes of the intestinal contents in broilers (U/g)

As shown in Table 5, NCLI and MCLI had an effect on digestive enzyme activities of duodenum content. Markedly increased activities of digestive enzyme including protease, chymotrypsin, trypsin and amylase in the small intestinal contents were observed in the NCLI and MCLI-treated groups during the overall experimental period (p<0.05).

Table 5.

Effects of NCLI (2%) and MCLI (2%) on the activities of digestive enzymes of the intestinal contents in broilers (U/g)

In the present experiment, supplementation with NCLI and MCLI could significant improved the activities of the digestive enzymes in the small intestinal contents (p<0.05). Our results were consistent with the previous studies of the clay minerals. It has been reported that the addition of clay to the feedstuffs improved the nutrient digestibility and the enzymatic activity of gastrointestinal secretions (Cabezas et al., 1991; Ouhida et al., 2000; Alzueta et al., 2002; Hu et al., 2004). Because, the ion-exchange properties of the zeolite could alter the pH and increase the content of macro- (Ca, K, Na) and microelements in the gastrointestinal fluids (Teimuraz et al., 2009), thereby changing the enzymatic activity of gastrointestinal secretions (Martin-Kleiner et al., 2001). Moreover, some reports indicate that the villi and microvilli of intestinal mucosa can affect the secretion of digestive enzymes (Gao, 1998). In the present study, increases in villus height and villus height:crypt depth ratio were observed in the small intestinal mucosa of chicks supplemented with NCLI and MCLI. Such improved intestinal mucosal morphology may be explained by the higher enzymatic activity of gastrointestinal contents.

From this study, the following conclusion can be drawn. The supplementation of NCLI and MCLI into the diets of broiler chicks can exert beneficial effect in the gut morphology, gut development and gut digestive enzyme activity. But the mechanism(s) of CLI on the gastrointestinal tract has not yet been studied. Thus, NCLI and MCLI can be beneficial as a feed additive in the broilers diet, and there is a need for further research to understand and clarify the mechanism(s) involved.