Table 1.
Summary of the implications and beneficial effects of different amino acids, vitamins and minerals as nutraceuticals in poultry.
| Nutraceutical type and dose | Poultry species | Implication/Conclusion | References |
|---|---|---|---|
| Amino acids | |||
| Trp, Ile, His, Val, Leu, Arg, Gly and Phe | Male broilers | Adding the essential amino acid mixtures to the low CP diets improved the performance but did not completely overcome the adverse effects of the low CP diets | Waldroup et al. 2005 |
| Threonine (0.4, 0.5, 0.6, 0.7, 0.8, 0.9, 1.0 and 1.1%) | Ross 308 males | Gut functionality like microvilli height, epithelia thickness and crypt depth was improved with even higher levels of dietary standardized ileal digestible threonine level | Zaefarian et al. 2008 |
| Arginine (2% L-arginine) | Broilers | Arginine increases specific immune response against Infectious Bursal Disease | Tayade et al. 2006 |
| Threonine, valine and tryptophan | Laying Japanese quails | Reducing the CP level in a diet supplemented with crystalline amino acids is a valuable strategy for decreasing feeding cost and mitigating ammonia emission | Alagawany et al. 2014 |
| Threonine and methionine | Broilers | Performance and immune system were improved at higher dietary threonine and methionine levels | Yaqoob and Ali 2018 |
| Threonine (0.0 (control group), 0.25, 0.50, 0.75 and 1.00 g/kg diet) | Broilers | Adding threonine in the diet may promote the growth of immune organs, encourage the antibodies synthesis and mitigate the immune stress caused by Newcastle disease virus or E. coli challenge | Azzam El-Gogary 2015 |
| Arginine (0%, 0.45%, 0.90%, 1.35%, and 1.80% Arg) | Broiler | The addition of arginine in the diet could improve the growth performance of broiler chickens at 42 days of age | Xu et al. 2018 |
| Lysine and methionine | Male broiler | There are positive effects on meat yield and growth performance in response to supplemental amino acids in diets from 21 to 41 days of age | Zhai et al. 2016 |
| L-Methionine (8 g/kg diet) | Rabbits | Reduced detrimental impacts of aflatoxinB1 on growth, immune and antioxidant status | Reda et al. 2020 |
| Three levels of Met + Cys (74%, 77% and 80%) of digestible lysine | Broiler chickens | DL-Met and L-Met are equally effective as a source of methionine for broilers | Rehman et al. 2019 |
| Threonine (0, 300, 600 and 900 mg/ kg diet) | Broiler chickens | A significant improvement was observed in performance indices of birds fed diet enriched with threonine compared with the control | Al-Hayani 2017 |
| Threonine, arginine, and glutamine | Broiler chickens | May help to minimize over-activation of the innate immune system, which is the most expensive in terms of energy and nutrients, as well as improve the intestinal microbiota | Bortoluzzi et al. 2018 |
| Apparent and standardized ileal amino acid digestibility | Broiler chickens | Increasing dietary levels of highly digestible amino acids may help compensate for malabsorption through the stages of intestinal challenge | Adedokun et al. 2016; Rochell et al. 2016 |
| Methionine (a control (0.49% methionine) or a deficient (0.28%) | Cobb500 broiler male parent | A methionine deficiency affects essential amino acids digestibility and cysteine, but not the methionine digestibility. The alterations in digestibility are reflected in the expression of mRNA of amino acid transporters across different tissues | Fagundes et al. 2020 |
| Threonine (100, 110, and 120% of NRC recommendation) | Mixed sex broilers (Ross-308) | Use of threonine, above NRC requirements, resulted in a better growth rate, feed utilization and carcass quality, gut health, increased ileal digestibility of amino acids and protein, and immunity | Ahmed et al. 2020 |
| Threonine (i.e., 100%, 110% and 120% of Ross recommendations) | Broiler chickens | An improvement in feed intake through the grower period and an improvement in body weight (BW)throughout the grower and overall period, whereas a better feed conversion ratio through the starter period in birds fed 10% extra threonine in comparison with the control diet | Zarrin-Kavyani et al.2018 |
| Threonine (100% NRC specification, 100, 110, 120 and 130% threonine of Vencobb-400 strain specification) | Broiler chickens (Vencobb-400) | The immune organs weight was improved with threonine supplementation | Debnath et al. 2019 |
| 3.0 g threonine/kg feed | male chicks | The level of intestinal cytokines in lipopolysaccharide-challenged chickens was reduced by threonine addition | Chen et al. 2018b |
| Vitamins | |||
| Vitamin E | Broiler chickens | improvement of the immune response and antioxidants concentration in the liver | Karadas et al. 2016 |
| 2 g α-tocopherol acetate/kg feed | Broilers | Increase in carcass mass and decrease in the abdominal fat of broilers | Zaboli et al. 2013 |
| Vitamin E | Broiler chickens | A significant influence on the chicken meat quality by reducing juice drip and increasing WHC of meat | Zdanowska-Sasiadek et al. 2016 |
| Vitamin A (16,000 IU/kg feed) | Hy-sex | Improvement of productivity performance parameters | Abd El-Hack et al. 2017a |
| Vitamin C (200 mg/kg feed) | Broiler chickens | Protection against the risk of high density by improved final BW, reduction of mortality and downregulation of HSP70expression level in the liver | Shewita et al. 2019 |
| Vitamin C (200 mg/kg feed) | Commercial broilers | Improvement of the immunity of broilers | Lohakare et al. 2005 |
| Vitamin A (0, 8,000 and16,000 IU/kg diet) and vitamin E (0, 250 and 500 mg/kg diet) | Bovans Brown laying hens | Both vitamins play a role in alleviating the harmful impacts of high ambient temperature. Use of 16,000 IU vitamin A with 500 mg vitamin E /kg diet is preferable for obtaining better production of birds exposed to heat stress | Abd El-Hack et al. 2019 |
| Vitamin E (0, 250 mg/kg diet) | Growing Japanese quail | Useful in partly alleviating the adverse impacts of cadmium | Abou-Kassem et al. 2016 |
| VitaminE | Laying hens | Prevents unsaturated lipid oxidation within cells, therefore protecting the cell membrane from oxidative damage induced by ROS | Mahrose et al.2012 |
| Vitamin E (200 mg/kg feed) | Male chickens | Enhanced semen quality traits, including the spermatozoa count and motility, and reduced the dead spermatozoa, under heat stress conditions | Ebeid 2012 |
| Vitamin E (100 mg/kg feed) | Poultry ganders | Improved ejaculate volumes, percentages of viable sperm and sperm concentrations and lowered percentages of spermatids | Jerysz and Lukaszewicz 2013 |
| Control with additional 3,000 or 9,000 IU25-hydroxyvitamin D3/kg feed, 3,000 or 9,000 IU vitamin D3/kg feed, 3,000 or 9,000 IU vitamin D2/kg feed | Lohmann white laying hens | Irrespective of forms, the apparent total tract digestibility of calcium was higher in diets enriched with vitamin D. The apparent total tract digestibility of phosphorus was higher in 3,000 IU/kg of vitamin D2 compared to the other treatments. The utilization of calcium and phosphorus by laying birds can be enhanced by the addition of different sources of vitamin D in rations | Adhikari et al. 2020 |
| Ca (3.0, 3.5, 4.0, and 4.5%) and 25OHD3 (0, 69, and 138 μg/kg feed) | Lohmann LSL-lite layers | Use high levels of calcium and 25OHD3 improved bone strength and decreased risks related to morbidity, leg weakness and mortalities | Kakhki et al. 2019 |
| Minerals | |||
| Copper sulfate (200 mg/kg feed) | Broiler | Useful influence on the growth rate | Hashish et al. 2010 |
| 150 mg copper sulfate/kg feed | Broiler chicks | Improved live BW gain that may be the result of the significant decline in the total pathogenic bacteria the gut | Xia et al. 2004 |
| Copper(8.77 and 11.6 mg/kg feed) | Goslings | Improved growth and carcass yield from 28 to 70 days of age | Yang et al. 2018 |
| 12 mg Mn (inorganic or organic)/kg feed | Broiler | It was sufficient to provide optimum broiler performance | Mwangi et al. 2019 |
| Zn-Met (25, 50, 75 or 100 mg Zn-Met/kg diet) | Hisex Brown laying hens | Increased Zn status and reduced blood triglyceride, LDL-cholesterol and resulted in improving antioxidant capacity | Abd El-Hack et al. 2018b |
| Chromium propionate with inclusion levels of 0, 200, 400, 800 and 1600 ppb. | Male ROSS-308 broilers | Better performance and weight gain may be achieved if chromium is added in broiler diets at the rate of 400 ppb | Arif et al. 2019 |
| Selenium (0, 0.25, 0.50 mg/kg feed) | Bovans laying hens | Hemoglobin and lymphocytes were increased with increasing dietary Se level in layer reared under heat stress conditions | Abd El-Hack et al. 2017a |
| Selenium | Poultry males | Plays an important role in semen quality and is related to the high proportion of polyunsaturated fatty acids in avian semen and its susceptibility to lipid peroxidation | Surai et al. 1998a |
| Organic Se | Cockerel | Dietary supplementation of organic Se in the cockerel’s diet increased (more than double) Se concentration in the semen; have a beneficial effect on the antioxidant defense in various tissues including sperm | Surai et al. 1998a,b |
| Selenium ( 0. 3 mg Se/kg feed) | Male chickens | Use of Se in the diet of male chickens increased the activity of GSH-Px in the liver, testes, spermatozoa and seminal plasma | Surai etal. 1998c |
| Organic Se (0.3 mg/kg feed) | Male chickens | Under high ambient temperature (33-36 °C in poultry farm), use of organic Se in the cockerel diets improved the GSH-Px activity and semen quality (motility and sperm count) and reduced the dead sperms count in a dose-dependent manner | Ebeid 2009 |
| Organic Se (0.3 mg/kg feed) | Male chickens | Enhanced semen quality traits, including the spermatozoa count and motility, and reduced the dead spermatozoa, under heat stress conditions | Ebeid 2012 |
| Selenium (0.3 mg/kg feed) | Poultry ganders | Improved ejaculate volumes, percentages of viable sperm and sperm concentrations and lowered percentages of spermatids | Jerysz and Lukaszewicz 2013 |
| 0, 0.5, 1.0 or 2.0 mg Se (sodium selenite)/kg diet | Hy-Line roosters | The highest activity of GSH-Px and lowest content of MDA in blood and testis was recorded in the treatment of 0.5 mg/kg | Shi et al. 2014 |
| Dietary Se deficiency (0.033 mg of Se/kg feed) in comparison with the control | Hy-line cockerels | Exerts harmful impacts on reproductive organs and the extrinsic and intrinsic pathways and the upstream regulators, like Bcl-2 and p53 are all involved in Se deficiency-induced testicular apoptosis | Huang et al. 2016 |
| 0.15 mg Se/kg feed from sodium selenite, Se-enriched yeast (Se-yeast) or SeMet | Broiler breeders | Apart from sodium selenite, Se-yeast or SeMet increased the activity of thioredoxinreductase-1 in the kidney and liver of breeders and their offspring, but not the activity of GSH-Px1 | Yuan et al. 2012 |
| Se 0.13 mg/kg feed with 0.4 mg Se in the form of sodium selenite (SS) or Se-yeast/kg feed for 9 months | Hy-Line Brown | Increased Se content of the e.g., g from 5.1 µg in the basal diet group to 14.4 and 22.7 µg, in SS or Se-yeast, respectively | Cobanová et al. 2011 |
| Organic selenium (0.5 mg/kg diet) | Poultry breeders | A reduction in mortality with selenium supplementation; increase in e.g., g production, hatchability, and percentage of settable e.g., gs | Rajashree et al. 2014 |
| Organic selenium (2 vitamin E levels (30 and 120 mg/kg feed) and two selenium sources (sodium selenite and zinc-L-selenomethionine). | Broiler breeder | Promoted heavier hatchling weight until e.g., g production peak (33 weeks), but did not influence hatchling quality | Urso et al. 2015 |
| 25 or 75 mg ZnO/kg diet | Laying hens (Hisex Brown) | Dietary zinc addition up to 75 mg/kg used as an effective supplement to improve antioxidant ability and zinc status in laying hens | Abd El-Hack et al. 2020b |