The relationship among gut microbiota, short chain fatty acids and intestinal morphology of growing and healthy broilers

ABSTRACT The gut microbiota play an important role in the growth and intestinal health of broilers. The present study was to investigate the gut microbiota, short chain fatty acids (SCFAs) and intestinal morphology of broilers at different age. A total of 320 one-day-old male broilers were raised in 8 replicates and fed the same corn-soybean diets for 42 days. The duodenal, jejunal and ileal segments and their and caecal microbiota were collected on days 1, 7, 14, 21 and 42, respectively. The villous height (VH), crypt depth (CD) and their ratio of VH:CD in the duodenum, jejunum and ileum all increased (P