ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Vet. Sci.
Sec. Veterinary Pharmacology and Toxicology
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fvets.2025.1638245
Effect of dietary supplementation with aspirin eugenol ester on performance and ileum health in broilers under high stocking density stress conditions
Provisionally accepted
- 1Henan University of Science and Technology, Luoyang, China
- 2Tokyo Daigaku, Bunkyo, Japan
- 3China Agricultural University, Beijing, China
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This study investigated the influence of dietary aspirin eugenol ester (AEE) on growth performance, ileum antioxidant capacity, intestinal barrier function and ileum microbiota of broilers subjected to high stocking density stress (HDS). A total of 360 one-day-old Arbor Acres broilers were randomly assigned to four treatment groups: normal density (ND, 14 broilers/m 2 ), normal density + AEE (NDAEE), high density (HD, 22 broilers/m 2 ) and high density + AEE (HDAEE).HDS leads to a significant decrease in broiler performance while reducing the antioxidant capacity of the gut. Morphologic examination of the intestine revealed that HDS causes damage to the intestinal villi. Dietary addition of AEE significantly increased body weight gain and improved antioxidant capacity with restoration of intestinal morphology in broilers with HDS. In addition, HDS resulted in decreased gene expression of ileum tight junction proteins and significantly increased gene expression of inflammatory factors in broilers. Dietary addition of AEE effectively alleviated the decrease in tight junction protein gene expression in broilers with HDS and reduced the expression of HDS-induced inflammatory cytokines through the COX-2-mPGES-1 signaling pathway. AEE supplementation improved microbiota diversity and increased the relative abundance of Lactobacillus and Ileibacterium. Thus, dietary AEE effectively reduced the negative effects of HDS on productivity, gut microbiota and overall health in broilers and could be a worthwhile dietary supplement for offsetting negative effects of stocking stress in broilers.
Keywords: broiler, stocking density, Aspirin eugenol ester, Microbiology, Production performance
Received: 30 May 2025; Accepted: 23 Jun 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Ma, Zhang, Bai, Zhen, Guo, Ito, Zhang and Ma. 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:
Dongying Bai, Henan University of Science and Technology, Luoyang, China
Yanbo Ma, Henan University of Science and Technology, Luoyang, China
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