New Insights into the Effects of Microbial Muramidase Addition in the Diets of Broiler Chickens

Abstract

The study aimed to explore how broiler chickens’ blood biochemistry, breast muscles’ fatty acid profile, growth, intestinal morphology, and immune status would be influenced by adding microbial muramidase (MUR) to the diet. Four hundred 3-day-old male broiler chickens were allocated to a completely randomized design consisting of four nutritional treatments (n = 100 per treatment, 10 chicks/replicate), each containing MUR at levels of 0 (control group), 200, 400, and 600 mg Kg−1 diet, with enzyme activity 0, 12,000, 24,000, and 36,000 LSU(F)/kg diet, respectively. The 35-day experiment was completed. The findings showed that adding MUR to broiler meals in amounts of 200, 400, or 600 mg/kg had no impact on growth performance (p > 0.05) during the periods of 4–10, 11–23, and 24–35 days of age. MUR supplementation quadratically impacted the feed conversion ratio of broiler chicks at 11 and 23 days of age (p = 0.02). MUR addition to the diet significantly and level-dependently enhanced the percentage of n−3 and n−6 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) in breast muscles (p ≤ 0.01), with no alterations to the sensory characteristics of the breast muscles. Dietary MUR increased most of the morphometric dimensions of the small intestine, with the best results recorded at the 200 and 400 mg Kg−1 levels. MUR supplementation at 200, 400, and 600 mg kg−1 linearly lowered the total cholesterol, triglycerides, and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol level (p < 0.01). Still, it significantly increased the high-density lipoprotein cholesterol and very-low-density lipoprotein cholesterol contents compared with the unsupplemented group. Compared to controls, there was a substantial rise in the blood concentration of total protein, albumin, globulin, IL10, complement 3, and lysozyme activity as MUR levels increased (p < 0.01). Moreover, MUR addition significantly increased the immunoexpression of lymphocyte subpopulation biomarkers. We could conclude that MUR can be added to broiler chicken diets up to 600 mg kg −1 to improve broiler chickens’ fatty acid profile in breast muscles, immunity, and blood biochemistry. MUR addition had no positive influence on the bird’s growth.