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Background: In response to China’s ban on medicinal feed additives with growth-promoting functions in livestock and poultry feed, there is an urgent need in modern animal husbandry for alternatives to antibiotics to sustain livestock health and improve feed conversion efficiency. Allicin, known for its safety, efficiency, lack of drug resistance and absence of residue, regulates the intestinal flora structure; inhibits the growth of harmful bacteria; improves intestinal health, immunity and stress resistance; and improves animal production. Methods: To investigate the impact of allicin on immune performance and immune-related gene expression in Muchuan black-bone chickens, diets were supplemented with varying allicin levels (50, 100, 200 mg/kg), designated as test groups A, B and C, respectively. Initially, growth performance was assessed. Subsequently, immunoglobulins were measured via enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and colorimetry; immune titers for avian influenza and Newcastle disease were evaluated using hemagglutination and hemagglutination inhibition tests and the expression of immune genes was analyzed via real-time quantitative PCR. Finally, serum biochemical indices in each group were determined. Result: Compared to the control group, allicin supplementation resulted in increased average fasting body weight in the experimental group and significantly (P<0.05) higher thymus and musogastric indices in groups A and C, respectively. Serum levels of immunoglobulin M in groups A and B and immunoglobulin G levels were significantly higher in all experimental groups than in controls. Antibody titers against avian influenza H5 and H7 strains were higher in all test groups, with Newcastle disease antibody titers in groups B and C significantly higher than those in controls. The mRNA expression levels of IFN-γ were lower across all experimental groups, whereas the expression levels of TLR3 in groups B and C and TLR15 in group B were higher. Serum levels of triglycerides in group A were significantly higher and blood urea nitrogen levels were significantly lower in groups B and C than in controls. These findings indicate that dietary allicin (50-200 mg/kg) significantly improves growth performance, immunity and protein and lipid metabolism in Muchuan black-bone chickens, offering valuable data for the development and use of allicin as an antibiotic alternative. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Skin color is an important economic trait in black-bone chicken production and it has been identified that the gut microbiota is an important factor in animal health and physiology. However, it is unknown about whether the gut microbiota in black-bone chickens is connected to the coloration of chicken skin. Methods: To investigate the relationship between the gut microbiota and skin coloration, comparing the differentiation of the gut microbiota structure and abundances in black- (B group) and white-skinned (W group) Muchuan black-bone chicken. Here, we characterized the microbiota in the jejunal contents of both the B and W groups using the Illumina MiSeq platform, targeting the genomic V4 region of the 16S rRNA gene. Result: In terms of community richness, the ACE community richness index of the B group was significantly higher than that of the W group (p<0.05) and the proportion of unique OTUs was higher in group B than in group W. According to the species annotation and abundance information of all samples at the genus level, Parabacteroides, Faecalicoccus and Alistipes were enriched in group B, whereas Actinomyces, Elstera and Nosocomiicoccus were enriched in group W. In the evolutionary branch diagram, the relative abundances of Enterobacteriaceae (Gammaproteobacteria, Enterobacteriales) were significantly higher in group B than in group W (LDA Score>4). Our data provide a basis for the hypothesis that the discriminating bacterial taxa in gut is associated with the feature variants for skin coloration of Muchuan black-bone chickens, which were fed in the same feed and stocking niches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]