ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Vet. Sci.
Sec. Animal Nutrition and Metabolism
Effects of Dietary Berberine Hydrochloride on Growth, Immunity, Meat quality and Fecal Microbiota in Broiler Chickens
Provisionally accepted
- 1Yantai Nanshan University, Longkou, China
- 2Shandong Cultural Industry Vocational College, Qingdao, China
- 3Jinzhou Medical University, Jinzhou, China
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This study aimed to explore the impact of dietary berberine hydrochloride (BBH) on 600 one-day-old AA+ broilers. The broilers were randomly allocated into five groups: a control group (TR) and four experimental groups supplemented with 25, 50, 100, or 200 mg/kg of BBH (designated as Ber25, Ber50, Ber100, and Ber200, respectively). The 42-day experiment consisted of six replicates per group. Results indicated that from 1-21 days of age, BBH had no significant influence on growth parameters such as body weight gain (BWG), feed intake (FI), and feed conversion ratio (FCR). However, during 22-42 days and 1-42 days, the 50-mg/kg BBH (Ber50) significantly increased BWG and FI, showing a quadratic effect. BBH linearly enhanced the spleen and bursa indices, with the spleen index in the Ber200 group higher than that in the Ber25 group. In 42-day-old broilers, the Ber200 group had the highest Newcastle disease and avian influenza H9 antibody levels, presenting both linear and quadratic effects. The Ber100 treatment maximized the pectoralis CIE L* value, and the Ber200 treatment increased the shear force. BBH decreased fecal Salmonella counts, demonstrating linear and quadratic effects, and had a linear impact on Lactobacillus counts, though without inter-group differences. In conclusion, 50 mg/kg of BBH improved broiler growth performance, while higher doses like 200 mg/kg enhanced immunity, reduced Salmonella, but increased meat shear force.
Keywords: AA+ Broilers, Berberine hydrochloride, fecal microbiota, growth performance, meat quality
Received: 16 Dec 2025; Accepted: 29 Jan 2026.
Copyright: © 2026 Chen, Lv, Tan, Li, Fu, Wang and Zou. 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: Qiangqiang Zou
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