{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,5]],"date-time":"2026-09-05T05:17:09Z","timestamp":1788585429174,"version":"build-2803163510"},"reference-count":46,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"17","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,3]],"date-time":"2026-09-03T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1788393600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"National Key Research and Development Program of China","award":["2024YFD1300403"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2024YFD1300403"]}]},{"name":"Key Program of the Natural Science Foundation of Hunan Province","award":["2024JJ3020"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2024JJ3020"]}]},{"name":"Yuelushan Laboratory Talent Program","award":["2024RC2013"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2024RC2013"]}]},{"name":"Yuelushan Laboratory Talent Program","award":["2024RC2012"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2024RC2012"]}]},{"name":"Research Foundation of the Education Department of Hunan Province","award":["24B0197"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["24B0197"]}]},{"award":["24B0197"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["24B0197"]}],"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/05ckg3w11","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Animals"],"abstract":"<jats:p>This study evaluated the effects of dietary supplementation with 4% multispecies probiotic fermented broth (MPFB) on the apparent nutrient digestibility, carcass traits, serum immune indices, intestinal morphology, cecal microbiota, and thigh muscle nutrient composition in 815-strain yellow-feathered broilers. A total of 400 healthy 4-day-old broilers with similar body weight and a 1:1 sex ratio were randomly assigned to the control group with basal diet (CON) or the MPFB group with 4% MPFB. The results showed that MPFB significantly increased the apparent digestibility of crude protein and calcium (p &lt; 0.05), and that of crude fiber and phosphorus (p &lt; 0.01). The MPFB group had a higher thigh muscle yield and a lower abdominal fat yield (p &lt; 0.05), while carcass yield tended to increase (p = 0.071). MPFB also elevated serum immunoglobulin M and interleukin-2 concentrations (p &lt; 0.05), increased duodenal villus height (p &lt; 0.05), reduced duodenal crypt depth (p &lt; 0.05), and increased the villus height to crypt depth ratio in the duodenum, jejunum, and ileum (p &lt; 0.05). Cecal microbiota analysis showed that MPFB significantly enriched Ruminococcus gauvreauii_group, Ruminococcus torques_group, and Turicibacter (p &lt; 0.05), while Bacteroides tended to increase (p = 0.093), which were positively correlated with the improved nutrient digestibility and duodenal morphology. In thigh muscle, MPFB tended to increase cysteine content (p = 0.081), decreased C14:0 (p &lt; 0.05), C16:0 and total saturated fatty acids (p &lt; 0.01), increased C20:2 (p &lt; 0.05), and tended to decrease C12:0 and C16:1 but increase C18:2n6c and total polyunsaturated fatty acid (p &lt; 0.10). In conclusion, dietary supplementation with 4% MPFB improved nutrient utilization and selected carcass traits and modulated the thigh muscle fatty acid profile in yellow-feathered broilers, which are potentially associated with improved intestinal morphology and modulation of the cecal microbiota.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/ani16172768","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,3]],"date-time":"2026-09-03T09:20:43Z","timestamp":1788427243000},"page":"2768","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Dietary Supplementation with Multispecies Probiotic Fermented Broth Improves Nutrient Digestibility and Carcass Traits While Modulating the Cecal Microbiota and Thigh Muscle Fatty Acid Profile in Yellow-Feathered Broilers"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"16","author":[{"given":"Haiqing","family":"Gan","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Animal Science and Technology, Hunan Agricultural University, Changsha 410128, China"},{"name":"Yuelushan Laboratory, Changsha 410128, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"},{"role":"conceptualization","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"methodology","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"visualization","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"software","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"data-curation","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"formal-analysis","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"writing-review-editing","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"writing-original-draft","vocabulary":"credit"}]},{"given":"Youping","family":"Tan","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Tangrenshen Group Co., Zhuzhou 412007, 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China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"},{"role":"supervision","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"project-administration","vocabulary":"credit"}]},{"given":"Dun","family":"Deng","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Tangrenshen Group Co., Zhuzhou 412007, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"},{"role":"project-administration","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"funding-acquisition","vocabulary":"credit"}]},{"given":"Qianglin","family":"Liu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Animal Science and Technology, Hunan Agricultural University, Changsha 410128, China"},{"name":"Yuelushan Laboratory, Changsha 410128, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"},{"role":"project-administration","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"supervision","vocabulary":"credit"}]},{"given":"Qiyu","family":"Tian","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Animal Science and Technology, Hunan Agricultural University, Changsha 410128, China"},{"name":"Yuelushan Laboratory, Changsha 410128, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"},{"role":"project-administration","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"funding-acquisition","vocabulary":"credit"}]},{"given":"Lingyuan","family":"Yang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Animal Science and Technology, Hunan Agricultural University, Changsha 410128, China"},{"name":"Yuelushan Laboratory, Changsha 410128, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"},{"role":"writing-review-editing","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"supervision","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"project-administration","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"funding-acquisition","vocabulary":"credit"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,3]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","first-page":"101859","article-title":"Revolutionising broiler nutrition: The role of probiotics, fermented products, and paraprobiotics in functional 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