Experimental study demonstrates dietary pine polyphenols mitigate physiological stress and improve gut health in heat-stressed broilers, suggesting protective dietary potential.
Key Points
Evaluate the effects of dietary polyphenols derived from shredded, steam-exploded pine particles on growth performance, gut integrity, and cecal microbiota in broilers exposed to acute heat stress.
Fed 108 one-day-old Indian River broilers diets supplemented with 0%, 0.5%, or 1% polyphenols from shredded, steam-exploded pine particles (PSPP).
Assigned 40 birds on day 37 into four groups maintained under thermoneutral (21.0 °C with 0% PSPP) or acute heat stress conditions (31.0 °C with 0%, 0.5%, or 1% PSPP).
Measured rectal temperature, performance traits, jejunal and stress-related gene expression (including HSP-70, HSP-90, NOX4, ZO1, and MUC2), and cecal bacterial community structure.
Acute heat stress increased rectal temperature and upregulated stress markers (NOX4, HSP-70, and HSP-90), whereas dietary PSPP supplementation reduced the expression of these stress-related genes.
PSPP supplementation promoted intestinal barrier integrity under acute heat stress by increasing the expression of the tight junction and mucin genes ZO1 and MUC2.
Cecal microbial composition shifted significantly under acute heat stress, with dietary PSPP altering the abundance of genera including Bariatricus, Sporobacter, Sporanaerobacter, and Natranaerovirga.