Effects of yeast hydrolysate supplementation on intestinal morphology, barrier, and anti-inflammatory functions of broilers

Objective This study was conducted to evaluate the effects of dietary yeast hydrolysate (YH) supplementation on intestinal morphology, barrier, and anti-inflammatory functions of broilers. Methods A total of 320 one day old male broilers were randomly allocated into four groups with eight replicates of ten broilers each. The broilers were supplemented with a basal diet (the control group) or basal diets adding 50, 100, 150 mg/kg YH, respectively. This trial lasted for 42 days. The orthogonal polynomial contrasts were used to determine the linear and quadratic effects of increasing levels of YH. Results In our previous research, supplementing YH improved growth performance by enhancing body weight gain but decreased feed-to-gain ratio. In this study, compared with the control group, dietary YH addition linearly and quadratically decreased serum diamine oxidase activity (p