Abstract
Laying and reproductive performance, egg quality, and disease resistance of hens decrease during the late laying period. Exogenous enzymes promote nutrient digestibility and utilization and improve the intestinal environment. However, the specific regulation of the gut microbiome and metabolome by exogenous enzymes remains unelucidated. This study was conducted to evaluate effects of dietary multi-enzyme supplementation on egg and reproductive performance, egg quality, ileum microbiome, and metabolome of breeders. Here, 224 Hy-Line Brown breeding hens (55 weeks old) were randomly allocated to two groups: dietary controls fed basal diet (DC), and test hens fed 0.2 g/kg corn enzyme diet (CE). Serum levels of total protein, globulin, immunoglobulin Y, and antibodies against the Newcastle disease virus and avian influenza H9 strain were significantly increased (p < 0.05). Egg albumen height, Haugh unit, and fertilization and hatching rates were also significantly increased (p < 0.05) in the CE-fed group. 16S rRNA sequence analysis showed that CE strongly affected both α- and β-diversity of the ileal microbiota. LEfSe analysis revealed that the potentially beneficial genera Lactobacillus, Enterococcus, Faecalicoccus, and Streptococcus were enriched as biomarkers in the CE-fed group. Microbial functional analysis revealed that the functional genes associated with harmful-substance biodegradation was significantly increased in the CE-fed group. Additionally, Spearman correlation analysis indicated that changes in microbial genera were correlated with differential metabolites. In summary, dietary multi-enzyme addition can improve egg quality, humoral immunity, and reproductive performance and regulate the intestinal microbiome and metabolome in breeders. Therefore, multi-enzymes could be used as feed additive to extend breeder service life.