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Poultry Mineral and Vitamin Nutrition: Molecular Mechanisms and Nutritional Strategies

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A Special Issue of Animals (ISSN 2076-2615) belonging to the section "Poultry".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 10 March 2027 | Viewed by 5326

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Dr. Yun Hu

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Guest Editor

College of Animal Science and Technology, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou 225000, China
Interests: mineral nutrition; nutritional physiology; anti-stress; epigenetic modification; transcriptional regulation
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Dr. Tingting Li

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor

College of Animal Science and Technology, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou 225000, China
Interests: vitamin nutrition; liver metabolism; oxidative stress; bone development
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Mineral elements and vitamins are not only essential nutrients for maintaining health, normal growth and development, and efficient production in poultry but also directly participate in many physiological and metabolic processes. For example, macro-minerals such as calcium and phosphorus are the main components of bones and eggshells; micro-elements such as zinc and selenium work together with vitamins to regulate the body's immune system, antioxidant defense, and various metabolic pathways. Precise regulation of these nutrients can effectively prevent common nutritional metabolic diseases such as leg disorders, abnormal bone development, and fatty liver diseases in poultry, thereby significantly improving production performance, stress resistance, and overall health. Therefore, a deep understanding of ‘Poultry Mineral and Vitamin Nutrition’ is of great significance for formulating scientific nutritional strategies and ensuring poultry health. Subtopics may include, but are not limited to, the following:

The requirements for mineral elements and vitamins in poultry;
The regulatory effects of mineral elements and vitamins on the growth, development, and production performance of poultry;
The role of mineral elements and vitamins in poultry stress resistance and corresponding nutritional strategies;
The functions of mineral elements and vitamins in enhancing disease resilience in poultry and related nutritional interventions.

Dr. Yun Hu
Dr. Tingting Li
Guest Editors

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Keywords

poultry
mineral nutrition
vitamin nutrition
molecular mechanisms
nutritional strategies

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Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

17 pages, 8943 KB

Open AccessArticle

Further Evaluation of 1,25(OH)₂D₃-Glycosides Inclusion Timing for Reducing Clinical Bacterial Chondronecrosis with Osteomyelitis-Induced Lameness Incidence in Broilers

by Anh Dang Trieu Do, Ruvindu Perera, Woro Wulandari Kalanjati, Layla Al-Mitib, Zoe Zeman, Mian Rohaan Ahmed, Shashitej Mummadi, Gastón Castaño, Jenny Agudelo, Kathrin Bühler, Jan Dirk Van der Klis, Michael T. Kidd and Adnan Alrubaye

Animals 2026, 16(16), 2586; https://doi.org/10.3390/ani16162586 - 19 Aug 2026

Viewed by 288

Abstract

This experiment compared 14-day and 28-day inclusion schedules of 1,25(OH)₂D₃-glycosides in the broiler feed on the reduction of experimental clinical bacterial chondronecrosis with osteomyelitis (BCO) lameness, using the aerosol transmission induction model. Eight hundred and forty Cobb 500 chicks were randomly allocated to each of the following treatments at 60 chicks/pen as the initial stocking density and reared over 56 d: T1 (Positive Control-PC, 2 wire-flooring pens)—Basal diet (7166 IU/kg Vit-D3); T2 (Negative Control-NC, 4 litter pens)—Basal; T3 (4 litter pens)—Basal + 14d 1,25(OH)₂D₃-glycosides (1 µg/kg feed); and T4 (4 litter pens)—Basal + 28d 1,25(OH)₂D₃-glycosides (1 µg/kg feed). There were three feeding phases: Starter (d0–21), Grower (d22–42), and Finisher (d43–56). Clinical lameness assessment was conducted daily from d21, followed by euthanasia and necropsy of clinically lame birds to determine BCO lesion severity. Cumulative lameness incidence rates between treatments were assessed using binomial logistic regression analysis in a generalized linear mixed model. All statistical significance was determined at p < 0.05. Cumulatively, T4 (55.5%) was significantly lower in clinical lameness incidence compared to T2 (85.0%, relative decrease of 34.71%; p < 0.0001), while T3 (85.5%) was not significantly different (p = 0.89). These results further affirm efficacy of the 28-day inclusion period and the rate of 1,25(OH)₂D₃-glycosides against experimental clinical BCO lameness incidence. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Poultry Mineral and Vitamin Nutrition: Molecular Mechanisms and Nutritional Strategies)

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17 pages, 602 KB

Open AccessArticle

Effects of Dietary Sulphur Amino Acid Levels on Growth Performance, Meat Quality, Nutrient Digestibility, Serum Biochemistry and Feather Follicle Transcriptomics in Jiangnan White Goslings

by Qingxue Liu, Usman Nazir, Xuan Li, Xiyuan Xing, Xucheng Zheng, Zhi Yang, Haiming Yang and Zhiyue Wang

Animals 2026, 16(12), 1865; https://doi.org/10.3390/ani16121865 - 17 Jun 2026

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Abstract

This study evaluated the effects of dietary sulphur-containing amino acid (SAA) levels provided during the early (1–28 d) and late (29–63 d) growth stages on production traits and feather follicle gene expression in 63-day-old Jiangnan white goslings. A total of 288 one-day-old male goslings were assigned to a 2 × 2 factorial design with two early SAA levels (0.64% and 0.87%) and two late SAA levels (0.62% and 0.74%), which created four treatments: Dd (low–low), Dg (low–high), Gd (high–low), and Gg (high–high). All measurements were performed on 63-day-old birds. Final body weight was significantly affected only by early SAA levels (p = 0.03), with the high early groups (Gd and Gg) showing a 3% higher weight (3.99 vs. 3.88 kg) than the low early groups. Late SAA levels had no effect on growth but markedly reduced breast muscle cooking loss (p < 0.01) from 26.64% (low late) to 22.70% (high late), which represents a 15% relative improvement in water-holding capacity. A significant early × late interaction (p = 0.03) indicated that late high SAA levels partially compensated for early deficiency. High late SAA levels also slightly reduced dry matter digestibility (73.45% → 73.16%, p = 0.03), while high early SAA levels increased crude ash digestibility (33.59% → 35.66%, p = 0.04). The Dg treatment (low early + high late) caused significantly elevated serum low-density lipoprotein (2.06 vs. 1.42–1.58 mmol/L) and uric acid (348.15 vs. 243.60–294.97 μmol/L), which indicates metabolic stress (p < 0.01 and p = 0.02 for interaction). Transcriptomic analysis of feather follicles from the Gg and Gd groups (both receiving identical high early SAA supplementation) identified 121 differentially expressed genes, including the downregulation of MAT1 (cysteine/methionine metabolism) and upregulation of GHRHR (neuroactive ligand–receptor interaction) in Gg, providing a molecular basis for improved feather growth. q-PCR validated five selected genes. In conclusion, final body weight is determined by early SAA supply, while late SAA supplementation improves meat juiciness, but abrupt increases from low to high SAA levels cause metabolic disturbances. Under this test conditions, The optimal feeding strategy is 0.87% SAAs (1–28 d) followed by 0.74% SAAs (29–63 d). Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Poultry Mineral and Vitamin Nutrition: Molecular Mechanisms and Nutritional Strategies)

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19 pages, 3863 KB

Open AccessArticle

The Involvement of the PI3K/AKT Pathway in Zn Alleviation of Heat Stress-Induced Damage to Broiler Jejunal Organoids

by Weizhen Song, Weiyun Zhang, Xi Lin, Hsiao-Ching Liu, Jack Odle, Miles Todd See, Shengchen Wang, Xiaoyan Cui, Chuanlong Wang, Liyang Zhang and Xugang Luo

Animals 2026, 16(10), 1492; https://doi.org/10.3390/ani16101492 - 13 May 2026

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Abstract

The direct involvement of the phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K)/serine threonine kinase (AKT) signaling pathway in the alleviation of the heat stress (HS)-induced damage to the integrity and barrier function of broiler jejunal organoids (JOs) by supplemental zinc (Zn) has not been confirmed. To verify it, two experiments were conducted in the present study. In experiment 1, the optimal concentrations of PI3K/AKT inhibitor (PI3K-IN-1) or agonist (YS-49) were screened. In experiment 2, the role of PI3K/AKT in Zn alleviation of HS-induced damage to JOs was evaluated with three JO types as control groups under baseline incubation temperature (40 °C) plus a 3 (JOs types) × 3 (Zn sources) factorial design under high temperature (44 °C). The results showed that the optimal concentrations of the PI3K-IN-1 and YS-49 for effectively inhibiting and promoting (p < 0.001) phosphorylation of PI3K and AKT were 16 μmol/L and 9 μmol/L, respectively. Adding Zn, especially Zn proteinate with moderate chelation strength (Zn-Prot M), alleviated (p < 0.001) the HS-induced increases in diamine oxidase content and lactate dehydrogenase activity in the media and the HS-induced decreases in JOs budding percentage, proportions of 5-ethynyl-2′-deoxyuridine and proliferating cell nuclear antigen positive cells, and the phosphorylation of PI3K and AKT. PI3K/AKT inhibition or activation reduced or enhanced (p < 0.05) the above alleviating effect of Zn, especially Zn-Prot M. These results indicate that the PI3K/AKT signaling pathway mediated the alleviation of HS-induced damage to integrity and barrier function of broiler JOs by supplemental Zn, particularly Zn-Prot M via promotion of cell proliferation. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Poultry Mineral and Vitamin Nutrition: Molecular Mechanisms and Nutritional Strategies)

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15 pages, 2243 KB

Open AccessArticle

Effects of Betaine on DNA Methylation Level, Expression Level, and Fat Synthesis of VNN1 in Goose Hepatocytes

by Zhi Yang, Usman Nazir, Xinfang Wang, Xucheng Zheng, Haiming Yang and Zhiyue Wang

Animals 2026, 16(4), 570; https://doi.org/10.3390/ani16040570 - 12 Feb 2026

Viewed by 1236

Abstract

This experiment was conducted to explore the effects of betaine on the DNA methylation level, expression level, and fat synthesis of VNN1 in goose hepatocytes by isolating the primary hepatocytes of goose at the cellular level and constructing a fatty degeneration model of goose hepatocytes. In the study, 23-day-old Taizhou goose embryos were used as the research object, and free fatty acid (PA:OA = 2:1) was used to induce steatosis of goose primary hepatocytes. The experiment was randomly divided into seven groups: control group, steatosis model group, and betaine (2, 10, 25, 50, 100mM) group. After 24 h of cell culture, cell viability, oil red O staining, and lipid metabolism-related indicators in cell supernatant were measured, and cells were collected to determine VNN1, FAS, ACC, SCD, SREBPQ gene expression and VNN1 promoter region DNA methylation level. (1) The addition of 0.5 mM fatty acids successfully determined the degeneration of goose hepatocytes. The levels of TG and LDL were significantly increased (p < 0.05), and the level of HDL was significantly decreased. (2) The addition of 100 mM betaine significantly reduced TG levels, and 10, 25, 50, and 100 mM betaine significantly reduced LDL levels. The addition of betaine had no significant effect on HDL level compared to the FFA group (p > 0.05), although a significant overall model effect was observed. Oil red O staining showed that the area of lipid droplets in cells with 50 mM betaine decreased most significantly. (3) The expression levels of VNN1, FAS, ACC, SCD, and SREBPQ genes in the fat model group were significantly higher compared to the control group (p < 0.05), and the DNA methylation level in the promoter region of the VNN1 gene decreased. (4) The addition of 2, 10, 25, 50, and 100 mM betaine significantly reduced the expression of VNN1. The expression of FAS in 2, 10, and 25 mM betaine groups significantly decreased. Betaine at 10 and 100 mM significantly reduced the expression of SREBPQ, but it showed no significant effect on ACC expression. Addition of 2, 50, and 100 mM betaine led to an increased DNA methylation status at the VNN1 gene promoter region. In summary, the addition of betaine can reduce the expression of fatty acid synthesizing genes such as FAS, SCD, and SREBPQ, down-regulate the expression level of the VNN1 gene, increase the DNA methylation level of the VNN1 promoter region, and reduce lipid deposition in goose liver steatosis cells. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Poultry Mineral and Vitamin Nutrition: Molecular Mechanisms and Nutritional Strategies)

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15 pages, 275 KB

Open AccessArticle

Comparative Efficacy of Selenium Yeast Supplements on the Health and Productivity of Commercial Layers

by Muhammad Zain Ghauri, Muhammad Sharif, Ayesha Zafar, Umer Farooq, Muhammad Talha, Safdar Hassan, Usman Nazir and Dejun Ji

Animals 2026, 16(1), 23; https://doi.org/10.3390/ani16010023 - 21 Dec 2025

Viewed by 1937

Abstract

This study was conducted to evaluate the comparative efficacy of graded levels of dietary organic selenium (OS) on the health, productivity, and egg quality of commercial laying hens. A total of 240 hens (26 weeks old) were randomly allotted to four dietary treatments in a completely randomized design: a control basal diet (0 ppm OS) and three diets supplemented with OS from selenium yeast (SY-2000 or SY-3000) to achieve levels of 0.20, 0.30, and 0.45 ppm, respectively. The experiment lasted for 72 days. Performance metrics were recorded weekly, and samples were collected at two time points to assess physiological responses. The results demonstrated that supplementation with 0.30 and 0.45 ppm OS significantly improved key productivity parameters. Egg production (p < 0.05), egg weight (p < 0.001), and cumulative egg mass (p < 0.001) were higher in these groups compared to the control. Nutrient digestibility, including dry matter, crude protein, and ether extract, was also significantly enhanced (p < 0.001) at the higher OS levels. The antioxidant defense system was strengthened, as evidenced by the increased serum activity of the glutathione peroxidase (p < 0.001), superoxide dismutase (p < 0.01), and diphenyl picrylhydrazyl radical scavenging capacity (p < 0.05). Furthermore, the humoral immune response against Newcastle disease showed a significant, dose-dependent improvement (p < 0.001). In contrast, feed intake, various egg quality parameters (shell thickness, specific gravity, and Haugh unit), and serum mineral profiles remained unaffected (p > 0.05) by OS supplementation. In conclusion, dietary OS supplementation at 0.30–0.45 ppm effectively enhances laying performance, nutrient utilization, systemic antioxidant capacity, and specific immunity, with the 0.45 ppm level demonstrating the most consistent and comprehensive benefits under the conditions of this study. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Poultry Mineral and Vitamin Nutrition: Molecular Mechanisms and Nutritional Strategies)

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