Intervention of mannan oligosaccharide on fatty liver syndrome in Roman laying hens fed high-fat diet

Objective The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of dietary supplementation of mannose oligosaccharide (MOS) on fatty liver syndrome and intestinal flora of Roman laying hens.

Method Eighty 230-day-old Roman laying hens were divided into four groups with 20 hens in each group, including the normal diet group (CK group), high-fat diet group (HFD group), HFD+0.1% MOS group (0.1% MOS group), and HFD+0.5% MOS group (0.5% MOS group). Samples of serum, liver, abdominal fat and intestinal contents were taken at the 9th week of the experiment. The regulatory effect of MOS on fatty liver in Roman hens was investigated by analyzing the serum indicators and gene expression in liver and gut microbiota sequencing.

Result High-fat diet significantly increased body weight, liver weight, liver index, abdominal fat weight and abdominal fat index of Roman laying hens, and induced fatty liver in laying hens. MOS significantly reduced the increase of body weight, liver weight and abdominal fat weight of laying hens caused by HFD. MOS significantly inhibited the increase of fat deposition in the serum and liver of laying hens caused by HFD. MOS inhibited mRNA expression levels of fat synthesis genes ACC, FAS and SCREBP-1c in liver, and alleviated fatty liver of laying hens. MOS significantly increased the relative abundance of Bacteroidetes and decreased the relative abundance of Firmicutes in cecum of laying hens.

Conclusion Dietary supplementation of MOS in HFD can improve the gut microbiome of laying hens, and inhibit mRNA expression levels of genes related to fat synthesis in liver, thereby alleviating the fatty liver of laying hens caused by HFD. Addition of 0.5% MOS in diet has a better effect for reducing the body weight, liver weight and abdominal fat weight of laying hens.