ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Vet. Sci.
Sec. Animal Nutrition and Metabolism
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fvets.2025.1614917
Serum metabolomics reveal mechanisms by which fermented brewer' s spent grains promote intestinal development in white-feathered broilers
Provisionally accepted
- Liaocheng University, Liaocheng, China
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This study aimed to investigate the effects of wet-fermented brewer's grains (WFBG) on gut development and serum metabolism in white-feathered broilers. A total of 192 one-day-old male broilers (initial body weight: 36.46 ± 0.93 g) were randomly assigned to two treatment groups: the control group (0% WFBG) and the experimental group (20% WFBG inclusion), with six replicates of 16 birds per replicate. The results of intestinal morphological parameters quantified using ImageJ software after hematoxylin-eosin (HE) staining showed that compared with the control group, broilers fed a diet supplemented with 20% WFBG had significantly improved duodenal development. Specifically, the duodenal villus height (VH) increased by 10.2% (P < 0.05), and the villus height-to-crypt depth ratio (VH/CD) increased by 27.2% (P < 0.05)—both indicators reflecting the enhanced duodenal development. Through untargeted metabolomics analysis for screening differentially-expressed metabolites (DEMs) of serum samples, 211 DEMs were identified, including 98 upregulated DEMs and 113 downregulated DEMs in the WFBG group. KEGG pathway enrichment analysis revealed that these DEMs were significantly associated with key metabolic processes, including linoleic metabolic pathways, linoleic acid metabolism, phenylalanine metabolism, and other relevant pathways. Specifically, key DEMs involved in amino acid metabolism showed significantly increased phenylalanine levels and decreased 4-HPA and 3-HPA levels (P < 0.05). In conclusion, the inclusion of 20% WFBG in the diet of white-feathered broilers significantly promoted intestinal development. These favorable outcomes tie to modified serum metabolic profiles and adjustments to lipid/amino acid metabolism in broilers, underscoring WFBG's significance for boosting broiler intestinal development while also adding to the theoretical framework for poultry by-product-based feeds.
Keywords: fermented brewer's spent grains, Intestinal development, broilers, Metabolomics, Metabolic mechanism
Received: 20 Apr 2025; Accepted: 31 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Li, Meng and Wang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Yuanfeng Li, Liaocheng University, Liaocheng, China
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