Effects of Sporoderm-Broken Spores of Ganoderma Lucidum on Growth Performance, Antioxidant Function and Immune Response of Broiler Chickens

This study was conducted to evaluate the effects of Sporoderm-broken spores of Ganoderma lucidum (SSGL), a traditional Chinese medicinal herb, on growth performance, oxidative stress, and immunity of broiler chickens. A total of 300 1-day-old male Arbor Acre broiler chickens with similar body weights (40 ± 1.0 g) were assigned randomly to 4 dietary treatments. Each treatment contained 5 replicate pens of 15 birds per pen. The treatment diets were prepared by supplementing SSGL to a basal corn-soybean meal diet with the concentrations of 0 (control), 100, 200 and 500 mg /kg diet.

The body weight and feed intake were recorded based on pen on d 21 and 44 after a 12 h feed withdrawal. On 44 d of the experiment, one bird from each pen with body weights close to the average was selected and slaughtered. Blood was drawn from the wing vein with a heparinized syringe and collected into tubes, then centrifuged at 1000 x g for 10 min to obtain serum. The serum was stored at -20 °C immediately. A portion of liver and spleen tissues were harvested, coded snap-frozen in liquid nitrogen, and then maintained in -80°C for analyses.

Pen was used as the experimental unit and one-way analysis of variance was performed using GLM procedure with SAS software (Version 9; SAS Institute, Inc., Cary, NC, USA). Duncan’s multiple range test was used for multiple comparisons when a significant difference was detected.

The results showed that diets with SSGL significantly increased (P < 0.05) average daily feed intake, average daily gain, and decreased feed: gain ratio (P < 0.05) of the birds during the finisher period (22-44 d). Dietary SSGL also increased hydroxyl radical-scavenging activity, and decreased the concentrations of malondiadehyde and lipid peroxidation in liver and spleen of the broilers (P < 0.05). Furthermore, the capability of total antioxidant, the activities of glutathione reductase and catalase and the concentration of reduced glutathione in liver and spleen were significantly higher in broilers fed diets with SSGL than broilers received control diet (P < 0.05). In addition, the levels of serum interleukin-2, IgA and IgG from the broilers fed SSGL were significantly increased as compared with that from the broilers fed control diet (P < 0.05). These results suggest that dietary supplementation of SSGL has ameliorative effects on growth performance, free radical-scavenging activity, antioxidant capability, and immune function of broilers.