Assessing the impact of hatching system and body weight on the growth performance, caecal short-chain fatty acids, and microbiota composition and functionality in broilers

Akram, Muhammad Zeeshan; Sureda, Ester Arévalo; Comer, Luke; Corion, Matthias; Everaert, Nadia

doi:10.1186/s42523-024-00331-6

Animal Microbiome

Table 2 Caecal volatile fatty acid (VFA) concentrations (mM/g wet digesta) of low (LBW) and high (HBW) body weight broiler chickens hatched in the hatchery (HH) or on-farm (HOF)

From: Assessing the impact of hatching system and body weight on the growth performance, caecal short-chain fatty acids, and microbiota composition and functionality in broilers

¹Items	²Groups (n = 10/group)					³P-values
¹Items	HH-LBW	HH-HBW	HOF-LBW	HOF-HBW	SD	HS	BW	HS × BW
Day 7
Acetate	200.5	155.8	182.9	249.6	73.61	0.212	0.713	0.074
Propionate	6.5	4.8	5.1	6.0	3.61	0.948	0.788	0.429
Butyrate	25.9	21.1	24.5	28.9	8.31	0.393	0.950	0.208
Valerate	1.39^a	0.74^bc	0.56^c	0.94^b	0.596	0.212	0.566	0.047
Caproate	0.04	0.02	0.01	0.03	0.022	0.134	0.540	0.109
Total SCFAs	234.6	182.6	213.2	285.7	79.02	0.210	0.750	0.068
Isobutyrate	0.96	0.77	0.87	0.98	0.358	0.349	0.806	0.734
Isovalerate	0.57	0.35	0.53	0.61	0.214	0.215	0.411	0.107
Isocaproate	0.26^a	0.19^b	0.22^a	0.21^b	0.041	0.332	0.019	0.095
Total BCFAs	1.79	1.31	1.62	1.79	0.552	0.528	0.533	0.185
Day 14
Acetate	185.2^b	217.3^a	177.5^b	207.8^a	45.31	0.545	0.032	0.955
Propionate	10.9	11.4	10.8	13.4	5.79	0.648	0.423	0.571
Butyrate	40.3	40.6	37.6	39.8	14.78	0.551	0.641	0.683
Valerate	2.21	2.14	1.76	2.30	0.641	0.432	0.123	0.077
Caproate	0.07	0.06	0.06	0.07	0.031	0.728	0.851	0.356
Total SCFAs	238.8^b	277.4^a	225.4^b	263.4^a	53.79	0.524	0.041	0.875
Isobutyrate	1.42^a	0.97^b	1.16^a	0.87^b	0.520	0.247	0.022	0.588
Isovalerate	1.18^a	0.80^b	1.09^a	0.91^b	0.440	0.932	0.049	0.489
Isocaproate	0.18	0.15	0.17	018	0.093	0.688	0.697	0.603
Total BCFAs	1.25^a	0.87^b	1.09^a	0.88^b	0.427	0.586	0.028	0.501
Day 38
Acetate	212.2	227.1	209.1	218.3	88.56	0.840	0.661	0.922
Propionate	14.1	12.4	14.8	11.5	4.86	0.860	0.079	0.860
Butyrate	41.8	43.5	42.8	42.9	15.7	0.963	0.850	0.878
Valerate	1.91	2.05	2.17	1.91	0.586	0.741	0.743	0.302
Caproate	0.07	0.06	0.08	0.06	0.042	0.634	0.242	0.725
Total SCFAs	270.5	285.2	269.1	274.8	102.0	0.862	0.762	0.895
Isobutyrate	1.63^a	1.41^b	1.67^a	1.34^b	0.438	0.927	0.048	0.710
Isovalerate	1.46	1.42	1.43	1.14	0.435	0.237	0.236	0.392
Isocaproate	0.23	0.25	0.26	0.24	0.029	0.335	0.832	0.167
Total BCFAs	3.33	3.07	3.35	2.72	0.810	0.511	0.086	0.475

¹SCFAs: short-chain fatty acids (Acetate, propionate, butyrate, valerate, and caproate); BCFAs: branched-chain fatty acids (Isobutyrate, Isovalerate, and Isocaproate)
²HH-LBW: hatchery-hatched low BW group (n = 10), HH-HBW: hatchery-hatched high BW group (n = 10), HOF-LBW: hatched on-farm low BW group (n = 10), HOF-HBW: hatched on-farm high BW group (n = 10). Individually sampled chickens were considered as experimental unit
³HS: main effect of hatching system; BW: main effect of body weight; HS × BW: interaction between HS and BW.
Data are presented as mean and pooled standard deviation (SD).
Values in a row with different superscript letters (^{a, b}) indicate significant difference at P < 0.05 (Two-way ANOVA with post hoc Tukey HSD)

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