{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,17]],"date-time":"2026-09-17T02:28:15Z","timestamp":1789612095706,"version":"build-2803163510"},"reference-count":35,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"8","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2019,7,31]],"date-time":"2019-07-31T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1564531200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"Talent Research Start-up Project of Guangdong Ocean University","award":["R18007"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["R18007"]}]},{"name":"Innovative Strong School Engineering Youth Talent Project","award":["2017KQNCX090"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2017KQNCX090"]}]},{"name":"Department of Education in Guangdong Province","award":["2018302"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2018302"]}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100003453","name":"Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["2018A030307023"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2018A030307023"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100003453","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"name":"Pandeng Program of Guangdong Province","award":["pdjh2019b0234"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["pdjh2019b0234"]}]},{"name":"National Research Foundation by Korean Government","award":["2018R1C1B5086232"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2018R1C1B5086232"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Animals"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Heat stress has a profound effect on poultry health and productivity. The present study evaluated whether feeding betaine could ameliorate long-term heat stress-induced impairment of productive performance in indigenous yellow-feathered broilers. A total of 240 five-week-old male broilers were randomly allocated to five treatments with six replicates of eight broilers each. The five treatments included a thermoneutral zone control group (TN, fed basal diet), a heat stress control group (HS, fed basal diet), and an HS control group supplemented 500, 1000, 2000 mg\/kg betaine, respectively. The TN group was raised at 26 \u00b1 1 \u00b0C during the whole study, HS groups exposed to 32 \u00b1 1 \u00b0C for 8 h\/day from 9:00 am to 17:00 pm. The results showed that heat stress decreased the body weight gain (BWG) and feed intake of broilers during 1\u20135, 6\u201310, and 1\u201310 weeks (p &lt; 0.05). Dietary betaine tended to improve the BWG and feed intake of broilers under 5 weeks of heat stress (linear, p &lt; 0.10), and betaine supplementation linearly increased the BWG and feed intake during 6\u201310 and 1\u201310 weeks (p &lt; 0.05). Additionally, nitrogen retention was reduced by 5 weeks and 10 weeks of heat stress (p &lt; 0.05), whereas dietary betaine could improve nitrogen retention in heat stressed broilers after both 5 and 10 weeks of heat stress (linear, p &lt; 0.05). Moreover, this study observed that the trypsin activity of jejunum was decreased by 5 weeks of heat stress (p &lt; 0.05), whereas betaine supplementation had quadratic effects on trypsin activity of jejunum in heat stressed broilers (p &lt; 0.05). Furthermore, 10 weeks of heat stress induced a reduction of villus height of the duodenum and jejunum (p &lt; 0.05), and decreased the villus height to crypt depth ratio of the jejunum (p &lt; 0.05). Supplementation with betaine ameliorated the adverse effects of heat stress on these parameters (p &lt; 0.05). Compared with the TN group, 10 weeks of heat stress reduced carcass and breast yield (p &lt; 0.05) and betaine supplementation improved carcass and breast yield of heat stressed broilers (linear, p &lt; 0.05). In conclusion, dietary supplementation of betaine could reduce the detrimental effects of long-term heat stress on growth performance, digestive function, and carcass traits in indigenous yellow-feathered broilers.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/ani9080506","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2019,7,31]],"date-time":"2019-07-31T11:37:07Z","timestamp":1564573027000},"page":"506","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":118,"title":["Effects of Dietary Betaine on Growth Performance, Digestive Function, Carcass Traits, and Meat Quality in Indigenous Yellow-Feathered Broilers under Long-Term Heat Stress"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"9","author":[{"given":"Wenchao","family":"Liu","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Animal Science, College of Agriculture, Guangdong Ocean University, Zhanjiang 524088, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Yilin","family":"Yuan","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Animal Science, College of Agriculture, Guangdong Ocean University, Zhanjiang 524088, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Chenyu","family":"Sun","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Animal Science, College of Agriculture, Guangdong Ocean University, Zhanjiang 524088, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-6938-1495","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Balamuralikrishnan","family":"Balasubramanian","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Food Science and Biotechnology, College of Life Science, Sejong University, Seoul 05006, Korea"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Zhihui","family":"Zhao","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Animal Science, College of Agriculture, Guangdong Ocean University, Zhanjiang 524088, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Lilong","family":"An","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Animal Science, College of Agriculture, Guangdong Ocean University, Zhanjiang 524088, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2019,7,31]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"131","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jtherbio.2018.08.010","article-title":"Heat stress in poultry production: Mitigation strategies to overcome the future challenges facing the global poultry industry","volume":"78","author":"Nawab","year":"2018","journal-title":"J. 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