Dietary Clostridium butyricum enhances antioxidant capacity by altering intestinal flora in broilers

Recently, there has been a growing interest in using Clostridium butyricum ( C. butyricum ) as an alternative to antibiotics, Because of its prospective benefits in strengthening the intestinal barrier and promoting broiler growth, the current research focused on understanding the impacts of C. butyricum supplementation on growth attributes, antioxidant capability, and intestinal microbiota in AA broilers. In this study, a control group (Con) and a C. butyricum group (Cb) were randomly established from a sample of 120 AA broilers. The basic diet for the Con group, in contrast, the Cb group's diet was the same but included a supplement of 2.88×10 9 CFU/g C. butyricum . (SLZX19-05, CN113583915B). The study showed that incorporating C. butyricum led to notable advancements in the growth and digestive abilities of AA broilers while effectively diminishing oxidative stress. High-throughput sequencing indicated that C. butyricum provided protective effects on the diversity of intestinal microflora, particularly increasing ileal intestinal microflora diversity. Lefse analysis revealed that the abundance of Oscillospiraceae , Butyricoccaceae , and Lactobacillus in the Cb group increased. Correlation analysis between intestinal microflora and antioxidant indicators suggested that C. butyricum supplementation might enhance antioxidant levels by increasing Lactobacillus abundance, especially the level of superoxide dismutase (SOD). Based on this study, supplementing AA broilers with C. butyricum may improve growth performance, digestive capacity, antioxidant capacity, and intestinal microflora regulation. These findings offer new insights into the role of C. butyricum in enhancing antioxidant capacity and provide a foundation for understanding the relationship between intestinal microflora and antioxidant.