IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/caa/jnlcjs/v64y2019i4id162-2018-cjas.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Dietary Artemisia vulgaris meal improved growth performance, gut microbes, and immunity of growing Rex rabbits

Author

Listed:
  • Jianping Wang

    (Department of Animal Production, Henan University of Science and Technology, Luoyang, P.R. China)

  • Lin Lin

    (Department of Animal Production, Henan University of Science and Technology, Luoyang, P.R. China)

  • Bin Li

    (Department of Animal Production, Henan University of Science and Technology, Luoyang, P.R. China)

  • Feike Zhang

    (Luoyang Xintai Agro-pastoral Technology Co., Ltd, Luoyang, P.R. China)

  • Ning Liu

    (Department of Animal Production, Henan University of Science and Technology, Luoyang, P.R. China)

Abstract

Artemisia vulgaris (A. vulgaris) is an edible plant showing antioxidant and antibacterial effects, but its effect as a feed additive or forage source on the herbivore growth and health is unclear. This study aimed to investigate the effect of A. vulgaris meal supplementation on the growth performance, gut microbes, and immune function in rabbits. A total of 120 growing Rex rabbits were randomly allocated into 4 treatments with 6 replicates per 5 rabbits each. There were four experimental diets containing A. vulgaris meal at doses of 0, 3.0, 6.0 or 9.0%, respectively. The experiment lasted for 70 days. The results showed that diets supplemented with A. vulgaris meal improved the rabbits' feed intake, body weight gain, and decreased feed conversion ratio (P < 0.05). Linear and quadratic responses were found between the growth parameters and the herbal meal doses (P ≤ 0.002). A. vulgaris meal also improved gut microbe populations by increasing Lactobacilli and Bifidobacteria, and decreasing E. coli, C. perfringens, Salmonella, and Gram-negative bacteria (P < 0.05), and linear and quadratic dose-dependent advantages were exhibited for these microbes (P ≤ 0.013). Furthermore, blood levels of IgA, IgM, and lymphocytes of bursale, thymus, CD4 and CD8 were increased by the treatments containing A. vulgaris meal (P < 0.05), and linear dose-dependent effect was found on these immune indexes (P < 0.001). Diet supplemented with A. vulgaris meal is effective in improving growth, gut microbes, and immunity of Rex rabbits.

Suggested Citation

  • Jianping Wang & Lin Lin & Bin Li & Feike Zhang & Ning Liu, 2019. "Dietary Artemisia vulgaris meal improved growth performance, gut microbes, and immunity of growing Rex rabbits," Czech Journal of Animal Science, Czech Academy of Agricultural Sciences, vol. 64(4), pages 174-179.
    • Handle: RePEc:caa:jnlcjs:v:64:y:2019:i:4:id:162-2018-cjas
    DOI: 10.17221/162/2018-CJAS
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://cjas.agriculturejournals.cz/doi/10.17221/162/2018-CJAS.html
    Download Restriction: free of charge
    File URL: http://cjas.agriculturejournals.cz/doi/10.17221/162/2018-CJAS.pdf
    Download Restriction: free of charge
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.17221/162/2018-CJAS?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ning Liu & Yien Lin & Shuaibao Wang & Jianping Wang, 2023. "Effect of catalase on the growth performance, antioxidation, and microbial metabolism of weaned rabbits," Czech Journal of Animal Science, Czech Academy of Agricultural Sciences, vol. 68(12), pages 508-515.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:caa:jnlcjs:v:64:y:2019:i:4:id:162-2018-cjas. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Ivo Andrle (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.cazv.cz/en/home/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.