ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Vet. Sci.

Sec. Animal Nutrition and Metabolism

Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fvets.2025.1619287

This article is part of the Research TopicSustainable Nutritional Strategies for Improving Health Status, Egg and Meat Quality in PoultryView all 9 articles

Bacillus paralicheniformis LN33 fermented feed improves growth performance in Cherry Valley ducks by enhancing immune function and intestinal barrier integrity

Provisionally accepted
Yilong  JiangYilong Jiang1Xiaofei  YangXiaofei Yang2Yi  LeiYi Lei1Songlin  LiSonglin Li1Xianxin  ChenXianxin Chen1*Li  JiangLi Jiang2*
  • 1Leshan Academy of Agriculture Science, Leshan, China
  • 2School of Life Science and Engineering, Southwest University of Science and Technology, Mianyang, Sichuan Province, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

This study investigated the effects of feed fermented with Bacillus paralicheniformis LN33 on the growth performance, antioxidant capacity, immune response, intestinal barrier function, and gut microbiota of Cherry Valley ducks. A total of 480 healthy 7-day-old Cherry Valley ducks (197.33 ± 5.90 g) were randomly assigned to four groups. Ducks were assigned to a control group (basal diet) or experimental groups supplemented with 1%, 3%, or 5% fermented feed for 28 days. Ducks fed 3% fermented feed had a significantly higher final body weight (3020.00 ± 52.20 g) and average daily gain (100.79 ± 1.73 g) than the control group (2896.00 ± 120.93 g and 96.39 ± 4.23 g, respectively) (P < 0.05). The feed-to-gain ratio decreased significantly (1.79 ± 0.03 vs. 1.87 ± 0.08; P < 0.05), while feed intake remained similar across groups. Antioxidant enzyme levels increased significantly, and pro-inflammatory cytokines decreased. Expression of intestinal tight junction proteins and immune markers improved. Relative abundances of Faecalibacterium, Odoribacter, and Butyricicoccus were significantly elevated and positively correlated with intestinal and immune function. These findings indicate that fermented feed improves growth and health in ducks by enhancing antioxidant activity, modulating the immune system, and reshaping gut microbiota.

Keywords: Bacillus paralicheniformis LN33, Cherry Valley ducks, fermented feed, growth performance, Immune function, intestinal barrier

Received: 28 Apr 2025; Accepted: 27 May 2025.

Copyright: © 2025 Jiang, Yang, Lei, Li, Chen and Jiang. 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:
Xianxin Chen, Leshan Academy of Agriculture Science, Leshan, China
Li Jiang, School of Life Science and Engineering, Southwest University of Science and Technology, Mianyang, Sichuan Province, China

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