Sodium butyrate maintains growth performance by regulating the immune response in broiler chickens.

1. The experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of dietary sodium butyrate on the growth performance and immune response of broiler chickens. In experiment 1, 240 1-d-old chickens were allocated into 4 dietary groups (0, 0·25, 0·50 or 1·00 g sodium butyrate/kg) with 6 replicates each. In experiment 2, 120 1-d-old chickens were fed a control diet (without sodium butyrate) or 1·00 g sodium butyrate/kg diet. Half of the chickens fed on each diet were injected intra-peritoneally with 0·5 g/kg body weight of Escherichia coli lipopolysaccharide (LPS) at 16, 18 and 20 d of age. 2. There was no effect of dietary sodium butyrate on growth performance. On d 21, serum interleukin-6 (IL-6) and tumour necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α) were decreased in chickens given 1·00 g sodium butyrate/kg, serum superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase activities were significantly increased, and malondialdehyde (MDA) was decreased by dietary sodium butyrate at 0·50 or 1·00 g/kg. On d 42, serum IL-6 was markedly decreased by...