In the current study, polyphenols from grape pomace and essential oils, namely thymol and carvacrol, were encapsulated by water soluble yellow mustard mucilage (WSM), maltodextrin and gum Arabic at various ratios. The effect of wall materials on the controlled release of the bioactive core compounds were tested in vitro using simulated poultry intestinal digestion system. The optimal formula was further tested in vivo on broilers by evaluating the the effects on intestinal microbiota and growth performance.  The encapsulated compounds were mixed with the bird's diet as feed additives and compared with antibiotic diet and control basal diet. The intestinal content was collected and ilium and cecal microbiota were analyzed using16S rRNA sequencing test. The in vitro study showed that the addition of the novel wall material WSM has significantly modified the releasing pattern of the bioactive compounds under gastrointestinal environment, where over 73% of bioactive compounds were delivered to the lower intestinal tract where most infectious bacteria are preferably located, while the particles without WSM had 49% available bioactive compounds left after exposed to the acidic gastro environment. The in vivo study has revealed that the incorporation of the encapsulated compounds has significantly modified the microbiota after 3 weeks of continuous ingestion, where the population of the infectious bacteria like Escherichia coli, Listeria monocytogenes, Staphylococcus aureus has significantly decreased, and bacterial diversity and the population of some representative probiotic bacteria like Lactobacillus have significantly increased (P&lt; 0.05). Additionally the supplementation of encapsulated particles has significantly decreased the feed conversion rate (P&lt;0.05) and increased the carcass weight.   In conclusion, the encapsulated compounds were successfully delivered to the target location at lower intestinal tract thus improved poultry gut health and growth performance.

Modulation of gut microbiota of broilers by controlled release of polyphenols and essential oils

ACS Spring 2022

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