The emergence of antimicrobial resistance has necessitated the development of effective alternatives to antibiotics for livestock and poultry production. This study investigated a possible synergy between butyrate and forskolin (a natural labdane diterpene) in enhancing innate host defense, barrier function, disease resistance, growth performance, and meat quality of broilers. The expressions of representative genes involved in host defense (AvBD9 and AvBD10), barrier function (MUC2, CLDN1, and TJP1), and inflammation (IL-1β) were measured in chicken HD11 macrophages in response to butyrate and forskolin in the presence or absence of bacterial lipopolysaccharides (LPS). Intestinal lesions and the Clostridium perfringens titers were also assessed in C. perfringens-challenged chickens fed butyrate and forskolin-containing Coleus forskohlii (CF) extract individually or in combination. Furthermore, growth performance and carcass characteristics were evaluated in broilers supplemented with butyrate and the CF extract for 42 d. Butyrate and forskolin synergistically induced the expressions of AvBD9, AvBD10, and MUC2 in chicken HD11 cells (P < 0.05) and the synergy was maintained in the presence of LPS. Butyrate and forskolin also suppressed LPS-induced IL-1β gene expression in HD11 cells in a synergistic manner (P < 0.05). The two compounds significantly reduced the intestinal lesions of C. perfringens-challenged chickens when combined (P < 0.05), but not individually. Furthermore, butyrate in combination with forskolin-containing CF extract had no influence on weight gain, but significantly reduced feed intake (P < 0.05) with a strong tendency to improve feed efficiency (P = 0.07) in a 42-d feeding trial. Desirably, the butyrate/forskolin combination significantly decreased abdominal fat deposition (P = 0.01) with no impact on the carcass yield, breast meat color, drip loss, or pH of d-42 broilers. Butyrate and forskolin has potential to be developed as novel antibiotic alternatives to improve disease resistance, feed efficiency, and carcass composition of broilers.

中文翻译：

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丁酸盐与毛喉素联合使用可缓解坏死性肠炎、提高饲料效率并改善肉鸡胴体成分

抗微生物药物耐药性的出现要求开发用于畜禽生产的抗生素的有效替代品。本研究调查了丁酸盐和毛喉素（一种天然拉丹二萜）在增强肉鸡的先天宿主防御、屏障功能、抗病性、生长性能和肉质方面可能存在的协同作用。在存在或不存在丁酸盐和毛喉素的情况下，测量鸡 HD11 巨噬细胞中参与宿主防御（AvBD9 和 AvBD10）、屏障功能（MUC2、CLDN1 和 TJP1）和炎症（IL-1β）的代表性基因的表达细菌脂多糖 (LPS)。肠损伤和产气荚膜梭菌滴度也在 C. 单独或联合饲喂丁酸盐和含毛喉鞘蕊花 (CF) 提取物的产气荚膜素挑战鸡。此外，在添加丁酸盐和 CF 提取物 42 天的肉鸡中评估生长性能和胴体特征。丁酸盐和毛喉素协同诱导鸡 HD11 细胞中 AvBD9、AvBD10 和 MUC2 的表达（P < 0.05），并且在 LPS 存在下协同作用得以维持。丁酸盐和毛喉素还以协同方式抑制 LPS 诱导的 HD11 细胞中的 IL-1β 基因表达（P < 0.05）。这两种化合物在联合使用时显着减少了产气荚膜梭菌攻击鸡的肠道损伤（P < 0.05），但不是单独使用。此外，丁酸盐与含毛喉素的 CF 提取物组合对体重增加没有影响，但在 42 天的饲喂试验中显着降低了采食量 (P < 0.05)，并具有提高饲料效率的强烈趋势 (P = 0.07)。理想地，丁酸盐/毛喉素组合显着减少了腹部脂肪沉积（P = 0.01），而对 d-42 肉鸡的胴体产量、胸肉颜色、滴水损失或 pH 值没有影响。丁酸盐和毛喉素有可能被开发为新型抗生素替代品，以提高肉鸡的抗病性、饲料效率和胴体成分。