• Animal Bioscience
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• v.37 no.12
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• pp.2101-2112
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• 2024

Objective: The current study investigated the effects of mulberry 1-deoxynijirimycin (DNJ) on the digestion ability, intestinal morphology, and intestinal barrier of rabbits. Methods: A total of 36 New Zealand White rabbits (male) about 45 days old (mean body weight of 1.05±0.04 kg) were reared and commercial diets were employed, and afterwards divided into three groups (n = 12) with different levels of DNJ extract additive in feed: T₀ (0 g/kg), T₁ (0.35 g/kg), T₂ (0.7 g/kg) for 28 d. Results: The results demonstrated that T₂ decreased the average daily gain (p<0.05). T₁ and T₂ decreased villus height and inflammatory factor levels as compared with T₀ (p<0.05). DNJ significantly decreased the content of valeric acid (p<0.05). The content of acetic acid, propionic acid, iso butyric acid, iso valeric acid in T₁ were higher than those in T₀ and T₂ (p<0.05). The content of butyric acid in T₂ was lower than it in T₀ and T₁ (p<0.05). The content of caproic acid was firstly improved then reduced as the DNJ concentration improved (p<0.05). T₂ significantly increased the abundance of dgA-11_gut_group and Christensenellaceae_R-7_group while decreased Bacteroide and Ralstonia as compared with T₀ (p<0.05). Compared with T₀, T₁, and T₂ significantly improved the gene expression of JAM2, JAM3, mucin4, mucin6 (p<0.05), T₁ significantly decreased the expression of occluding while T₂ significantly increased (p<0.05), T₂ significantly increased the expression of claudin1 and claudin2 (p<0.05). Conclusion: DNJ at high level changed microbiome compositions, inhibited inflammation, and improved intestinal barrier while it decreased the growth performance and shorted villus height in rabbit jejunum by regulating short chain fatty acid compositions in rabbits.