Efficacy of guanidinoacetic acid at different dietary crude protein levels on growth performance, stress indicators, antioxidant status, and intestinal morphology in broiler chickens subjected to cyclic heat stress

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anifeedsci.2019.114208Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Effect of protein level and guanidinoacetic acid (GAA) supplementation was studied in broilers exposed to heat stress (HS).

  • Addition of GAA improved growth performance of HS broilers with lower protein concentration (90% of the recommendation).

  • All tested levels of GAA (0.6 and 1.2 g/kg) alleviated the adverse effect of HS on growth performance and gut morphology.

  • The optimal dose of GAA supplementation for improving antioxidant status in heat-stressed broilers was 0.6 g/kg.

Abstract

This experiment was conducted to evaluate the effects of dietary crude protein [CP; normal and low (90% of the normal CP level)] and guanidinoacetic acid (GAA; 0, 0.6, and 1.2 g/kg of diet) on growth performance, leukocyte profile, stress indicators, antioxidant enzymes activity, and intestinal morphology in broiler chickens under cyclic heat stress (HS). A total of 504 one-d-old male broiler chickens (Ross 308) were randomly assigned to seven treatment groups (6 cages/treatment with 12 birds/cage). The positive control (PC) broiler chickens were housed in a thermoneutral chamber and fed with a basal diet (normal diet without GAA supplementation). The other six groups were kept in a cyclic HS chamber (34 °C) for 8 h (10:00-18:00). All experimental diets were fortified with synthetic feed-grade methionine, lysine, threonine, and valine at levels sufficient to meet dietary requirements. Cyclic HS decreased (P < 0.001 or 0.05) overall average daily gain (ADG), European performance index, and serum T4 level, while increased overall feed conversion ratio (FCR) and heterophil to lymphocyte ratio compared to the PC group. There was a CP × GAA interaction for overall ADG (P = 0.025), indicating that the effect of GAA on this response was more marked at low dietary CP levels. Heat-stressed broilers that had received the low-CP diet, amino acid-fortified diets could support growth performance and physiological traits equivalent to those that had received the normal-CP diets. Dietary inclusion of GAA caused significant linear increases in villus height (P = 0.007), villus width (P = 0.021), villus height to crypt depth ratio (P = 0.002) and villus surface area (P = 0.001) in the duodenum, as well as villus surface area (P = 0.043) in the jejunum. An increase in dietary GAA levels was also accompanied by a linear increase (P = 0.041) in the serum T3 level. In conclusion, the positive effects of GAA supplementation were clearly evident for broilers reared under the cyclic HS conditions. At a low level of CP (90% of the normal CP level), the GAA-supplemented diet at the inclusion level of 1.2 g/kg was advantageous over other diets, with respect to the growth rate.

Introduction

The adverse effects of heat stress (HS) on survival rate, growth performance, and meat quality are well described in broiler chickens and continue to be economically harmful to many farms (Akhavan-Salamat and Ghasemi, 2016; Habibian et al., 2016). In broiler chickens, HS also could disturb endocrine system (Sohail et al., 2010; Zaglool et al., 2019), impair morphology of the intestinal mucosa (Yi et al., 2016; Awad et al., 2018), and induce oxidative damage in various tissues (Akbarian et al., 2016; Cheng et al., 2018). Several approaches have been proposed for attenuating the detrimental effects of HS in poultry, including environmental management, dietary manipulation, as well as the inclusion of appropriate additives in the diet, although the efficiency of most of the approaches as reported in the literature has been variable or inconsistent.

Dietary crude protein (CP) has received great attention in connection with HS because its catabolism contributes to the more metabolic heat production when compared to that of fats and carbohydrates in the body (Syafwan et al., 2011). It is generally believed that feeding high dietary CP to broiler chickens causes a low protein efficiency and high heat production, while limiting CP consumption and adding synthetic amino acids can improve the efficiency of dietary protein utilization of broiler chickens (Attia and Hassan, 2017; Awad et al., 2018). Thus, low-CP, amino acid-fortified diets may be used as part of the overall strategy for the nutritional management of heat stressed-broilers. Previous researches on low-CP diets in heat stressed-broilers showed that reducing dietary CP with the use of crystalline amino acids could support growth performance (Awad et al., 2014; Ghasemi et al., 2014), and improve the survivability (Zulkifli et al., 2018). However, to better understand the impact of low CP nutrition on the physiological and biochemical indices in broiler chickens reared under heat stress conditions, more fundamental research in this area is needed.

Creatine is naturally present in vertebrate cells and plays a very important role in the energy delivery process in several tissues, particularly in the replacement of adenosine triphosphate reserves in muscle cells. Creatine is phosphorylated to phosphocreatine in muscle that is directly involved for the maintenance of low levels of adenosine diphosphate at the sites of energy utilization in the myofibrils and in the transport of high-energy phosphate from mitochondria (Chen et al., 2011; Ostojic, 2016). However, under HS condition, this metabolic pathway seems to be changed. When broiler chickens are exposed to high ambient temperatures, respiratory rate and rectal temperature increase, resulting in the higher utilization of muscle energy reserves, mostly in the form of glycogen (Gonzalez-Esquerra and Leeson, 2006; Kumari and Nath, 2018). In addition, under HS condition, arginine may be mainly utilized for the synthesis of nitric oxide, which stimulates vasodilation and reduces vascular resistance (Khajali et al., 2011). Nitric oxide, as an important signaling molecule, also plays the main role in glucose transport into the skeletal muscle tissues during muscular contraction (Jobgen et al., 2006). Therefore, arginine requirements may need to be increased for the nitric oxide synthesis in heat-stressed broilers.

Guanidinoacetic acid (GAA) is the important metabolic intermediary product and biological precursor of creatine, which is synthesized from the glycine and arginine in the avian kidney and liver (Dilger et al., 2013). Guanidinoacetic acid is reported to be a more suitable feed additive compared with creatine and arginine because it is less expensive than either of these compounds and is more chemically stable than creatine (Baker, 2009). Furthermore, GAA could spare dietary arginine, in the same manner as dietary creatine, which in turn could be used for other metabolic pathways (Baker, 2009; Dilger et al., 2013). Since the administration of GAA may improve cellular bioenergetics by the stimulation of creatine biosynthesis (Ostojic, 2015), it can be considered that dietary GAA might have different effects on growth performance and metabolism of broilers depending on the energy and protein levels of the diet.

As described, due to (1) influence of dietary CP content on HS response, (2) the role of creatine metabolism in muscle energy reserve, and (3) importance to alleviate heat-induced damage in performance and metabolism of broiler chickens, the interaction between GAA and CP level in the diet when broilers are exposed to a high environmental temperature merits investigation. Therefore, this study was undertaken to investigate the supplementation of GAA on growth performance, leukocyte profile, physiological stress indicators, antioxidant status, and gut morphology of heat stressed-broilers fed diets containing two dietary CP levels (100 or 90% of the Ross 308 strain recommendation).

Section snippets

Experimental design, diets and environmental conditions

All experimental procedures involving birds were complied with the “Guidelines for the Care and Use of Animals in Research”’ and approved by the Animal Ethics Committee of Arak University (contract number 93–9979). A total of 504 one-day-old male broiler chickens (Ross 308) with similar initial body weight were purchased from a commercial hatchery and used in this study. The experiment was a 2 × 3 plus 1 factorial arrangement of the treatments with two levels of dietary CP [normal (100% of the

Growth performance

The effect of dietary CP and supplemental GAA on growth performance in broiler chickens reared under HS condition is shown in Tables 3 to 5. Up to 24 d, BW and ADG were not affected by experimental treatments. In contrast, the final BW and the ADG in the finisher and entire experimental periods of the PC group were higher (P < 0.05) than those of all HS groups (Table 3). Based on the factorial analysis, the interactions among dietary CP and GAA level were observed for final BW (P = 0.026) and

Discussion

In agreement with several reports demonstrating the adverse effects of HS on growth performance (Quinteiro-Filho et al., 2010; Sohail et al., 2013; Akhavan-Salamat and Ghasemi, 2016; Habibian et al., 2016), the results of the current study showed a reduction in ADG and ADFI when broiler chickens exposed to HS. During the entire trial, FCR of PC treatment was comparable with all HS groups except non-supplemented low-CP group showing a significant increase from the PC treatment. This implied that

Conclusion

In conclusion, feeding low-CP diets (90% of the Ross 308 recommendations for CP) fortified with lysine, methionine, threonine, and valine can support growth performance equivalent to that of broilers fed with a standard protein diet under cyclic HS conditions. In addition, a partial beneficial effect of low-CP diet was observed on the mortality rate of broilers grown in high temperature conditions. The results also showed that dietary supplementation of GAA at the rate of 0.06% could be an

Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial assistance for this research that was provided by Arak University in Arak, Iran (Grant Number. 97/44) and the Evonik Degussa in Tehran, Iran.

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