Effects of dietary supplement of vitamin B6 on growth performance and non-specific immune response of weaned rex rabbits
A sixty-day experiment was carried out to evaluate the effect of a dietary supplement of vitamin B6 on growth performance and non-specific immune response of weaned to three month-old growing Rex rabbits. Two hundred weaned healthy Rex rabbits with similar body weight were randomly assigned to one o...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Taylor & Francis Group
2018-01-01
|
| Series: | Journal of Applied Animal Research |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09712119.2018.1512498 |
| Summary: | A sixty-day experiment was carried out to evaluate the effect of a dietary supplement of vitamin B6 on growth performance and non-specific immune response of weaned to three month-old growing Rex rabbits. Two hundred weaned healthy Rex rabbits with similar body weight were randomly assigned to one of five dietary groups, and the dietary groups supplemented of different vitamin B6: 0, 5, 10, 20, and 40 mg/kg. Dietary vitamin B6 had effects on ADG and ADFI (P < .05), the highest ADG values and the lowest diarrhea ratio were found in 20 mg/kg group. Vitamin B6 had effects on the relative weight of thymus and spleen (P < .05), especially in the 10 and 20 mg/kg groups. Additionally, vitamin B6 had significant effects on serum IgA, IL-6 and IFN-γ titres and on sIgA titres in the duodenum and ileum (P < .05). Splenic IL-6 and IFN-γ mRNA expression levels increased with vitamin B6 (P < .05). Furthermore, vitamin B6 had increased M cell count in the appendix (P < .05). The findings revealed that vitamin B6 affects the immune performance of rabbits and the recommended vitamin B6 supplemental level was 10–20 mg/kg for weaned to three month-old growing Rex rabbits. Abbreviations: ADG: average daily gain; ADFI: average daily feed intake; F/G,: feed to gain ratio; IgG: immunoglobulin G; IgA: immunoglobulin A; IgE: immunoglobulin E; IL-6: interleukin-6; IFN-γ: interferon-γ; sIgA: secretory immunoglobulin A; pIgR: polymeric immunoglobulin receptor; GAPDH: Glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase; M: cell; Microfold: cell; OD: optical density; ELISA: enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays |
|---|---|
| ISSN: | 0971-2119 0974-1844 |