Influence of commercially processed former foodstuffs on broiler gut health

This study aimed to evaluate the effects of incorporating commercially processed former foodstuffs (cFF) as partial replacements for corn, soybean meal, and soybean oil in broiler diets, focusing on intestinal histomorphology, gut microbiota composition, caecal volatile fatty acids (VFA) and ammonia levels. Two hundred one-day-old male ROSS-308 broiler chicks were allocated into four dietary treatments based on average body weight (38.0 +/- 0.11 g), with five replicates of ten chickens per treatment. The control treatment (cFF0) received a standard commercial diet, while other treatments received diets with cFF replacing conventional ingredients at 6.25% (cFF6.25), 12.5% (cFF12.5), and 25% (cFF25). At day 33, 60 birds (15 per treatment) were slaughtered for analysis. Results showed no differences in gut morphology, and histology of liver, spleen and bursa of Fabricius across the dietary treatments. In the gut microbiota, alpha diversity indices, such as observed features and Shannon entropy, showed no variation among dietary treatments. However, at the genus level, Faecalibacterium abundance increased (p < 0.05) in the cFF25 treatment compared to the control treatment (cFF0). Additionally, there were no differences in VFA concentrations between the diets. A linear decrease in ammonia concentration (p < 0.05) was observed as cFF rates increased in the diet, from cFF0 to cFF25. These results suggest that the incorporation of up to 25% cFF in broiler diets has no negative impact on intestinal health, nor compromise broiler performance.