ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Vet. Sci.
Sec. Animal Nutrition and Metabolism
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fvets.2025.1640419
This article is part of the Research TopicNatural Compounds/Products and Livestock Productivity: Enhancing Antioxidant Levels, Gut Health, Mitigating Greenhouse Gas Emissions, and Disease Control, Volume IIView all 5 articles
Effects of dietary Trollius chinensis Bunge residue supplementation on growth performance, antioxidant status, intestinal morphology, and cecal microbiota in weaned rabbits
Provisionally accepted
Lingcong Deng1,2
Juan Fang1*Jiayu Yu3Yu Dong1Kailong Han4
Jieying Bai2*Xue Yang2
Fei Dongliang2Xibin Han2
Ma Mingxiao2- 1Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, China
- 2Jinzhou Medical University, Jinzhou, China
- 3Yangzhou University, Yangzhou, China
- 4Shenyang Agricultural University, Shenyang, China
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Weaning stress can cause decreased immunity and intestinal flora imbalance, leading to diarrhea and even death of the rabbits. The present study aimed to investigate the benefits from Trollius chinensis Bunge residues (TCBR) on growth performance, antioxidant capacity, intestinal health and cecal microbiota in weaned rabbits. Through the ultra performance liquid chromatography (UPLC) technology, the main active ingredients from TCBR were analyzed. And then, 48 30-day-old rabbits were randomly allocated into 4 groups, with 12 replicates per group. Four diets were formulated with graded levels of TCBR: 2.0%, 4.0%, and 6.0% represented as TCBR2, TCBR4, and TCBR6 groups alongside a Mock group without TCBR. Our results showed that TCBR2 significantly alleviated adverse clinical manifestations in weaned rabbits and improved survival rate, growth performance, and reduced the feed conversion ratio compared with the Mock group. TCBR2 also enhanced carcass yield, partial-eviscerated carcass yield, and antioxidant capacity, and increased jejunal villus height and villus/crypt ratio compared with that in the Mock group, whereas no differences were observed between the TCBR4 and TCBR6 groups. Furthermore, TCBR2 significantly increased the expression levels of Occludin and ZO-1 in jejunal tissue while reducing the expression levels of TNF-α and IL-8.Notably, 16S RNA analysis revealed that Bacteroidota levels were significantly elevated in the TCBR2 groups, with Akkermansia, Clostridium, and Succiniclasticum also up-regulated in the TCBR2 group. In conclusion, TCBR2 supplementation improved growth performance and attenuated adverse clinical symptoms in rabbits, suggesting the potential of low-dose TCBR as a feed additive.
Keywords: Traditional Chinese medicine residues, Trollius chinensis Bunge, rabbit, Cecal microbiota, antioxidant capacity, Blood biochemistry
Received: 03 Jun 2025; Accepted: 06 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Deng, Fang, Yu, Dong, Han, Bai, Yang, Dongliang, Han and Mingxiao. 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:
Juan Fang, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, China
Jieying Bai, Jinzhou Medical University, Jinzhou, China
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