Research Note: Oral administration with taurine alleviates the weight loss, intestinal atrophy, and redox imbalance induced by post-hatch transportation in yellow-feathered broiler chicks.

Abstract

This study investigated the effects of oral taurine (Tau) administration on the weight loss, plasma biochemical parameters, intestinal integrity, and redox status in yellow-feathered broiler chicks exposed to post-hatch transport stress (TS). A total of 180 newly hatched yellow-feathered broiler chicks were selected and randomly assigned to 5 treatment groups, with 6 replicates each group and 6 chicks each replicate. The broilers were orally administrated with either physiological saline or 1 %, 2 %, and 3 % Tau followed by 5 h post-hatch transportation except the negative control (NC) group. The results showed that TS significantly increased the weight loss, rectal temperature, heart rate, plasma lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) and malondialdehyde (MDA) levels, as well as the crypt depth in duodenum and ileum, while reducing villus height of duodenum, jejunum, and ileum in chicks (P < 0.05). However, oral Tau administration alleviated the weight loss induced by TS, and reduced plasma aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), and LDH activities, and MDA levels in chicks (P < 0.05). Additionally, the villus heights (VH) and the VH to crypt depth (CD) ratios in duodenum, jejunum and ileum, as well as plasma glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) activity, were significantly increased by oral Tau treatment in yellow-feathered broiler chicks subjected to TS, while the crypt depths in duodenum, jejunum and ileum were decreased by Tau administration (P < 0.05). These findings demonstrate that oral Tau administration could mitigate TS-induced weight loss, intestinal atrophy and redox imbalance in yellow-feathered broiler chicks by enhancing intestinal integrity and improving antioxidant capacity. The optimal dose of Tau for newly-hatched chicks prior to TS is 2 % (equivalent to 575 mg/kg body weight) when administrated orally.