Dietary supplementation with Gastrodia elata powder affected the gut microbiota and serum biochemical parameters in broilers

After Gastrodia elata was established as a source of both food and medicine, large-scale cultivation and extensive production and processing have led to an increase in substandard products. In order to explore the high utilization value of these unqualified products and their potential applications in livestock and poultry breeding, this study examined the effects of low-, medium-, and high-dose Gastrodia elata powder supplementation on serum biochemistry, gut bacterial and fungal diversity in broilers. Sixty 21-day-old broilers were randomly divided into control (CON), low- (LDG, 250 mg/kg), medium- (MDG, 500 mg/kg), and high-dose (HDG, 750 mg/kg) groups, with 5 replicates of 3 birds each. After 56 days, serum parameters were measured, and cecal bacterial and fungi were analyzed via 16S rRNA (V3–V4) and ITS gene amplicon sequencing. The results showed that dietary supplementation with Gastrodia elata powder had no significant effect on serum biochemical parameters. Dietary supplementation with Gastrodia elata powder modulated the intestinal bacterial structure. Specifically, the relative abundances of Oscillospira , Parasutterella , and Negativibacillus significantly decreased, while those of Ruminiclostridium , Erysipelatoclostridium , and Enterorhabdus significantly increased. Fungal diversity and relative abundance also responded to the supplementation: the Chao index of the HDG group was significantly higher than that of the CON group. Under the present experimental conditions, Gastrodia elata altered specific bacterial taxa and tended to modulate serum alkaline phosphatase (ALP) and high-density lipoprotein (HDL) levels.