Effects of pine needles polysaccharide on growth performance and immune functions of broilers

This experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of pine needles polysaccharide on growth performance and immune functions of broilers. Two hundred and forty one-day-old 815 broilers were randomly divided into 4 groups with 4 replicates in each group and 15 broilers in each replicate. The basal diets were supplemented with 0, 0.05%, 0.10% and 0.15% pine needles polysaccharide, respectively. The experiment lasted for 42 days. Growth performance, immune organomdocws indices, serum immune indices were determined in different periods. The results showed as follows: in the early stage (1-21 d), there was no significant difference among all groups in the growth performance (P>0.05). The concentration of IL2 in the 0.05% polysaccharide group was extremely significantly higher than that in control group (P<0.01), while pine needles polysaccharide took no effect on the TNFα, thymosin concentration and immune organ indices (P>0.05). In the later stage (22-42 d), ADG (average daily gain) of the broilers in the 0.10% polysaccharide group was significantly higher than that in control group (P<0.05). There was no difference in ABG (average body gain) and F/G (feed/gain) in all the groups (P>0.05). The concentration of TNFα in 0.05% polysaccharide group was significantly higher than that in control group (P<0.05). In contrast, there was no significant difference in the IL2, thymosin concentration and immune organ indices in all groups (P>0.05). In conclusion, pine needles polysaccharide could improve the growth performance and immune functions of broilers. The adding amount of 0.05%~0.10% pine needles polysaccharide was appropriate.