{"doi":"10.3389/fnut.2022.888191","title":"Effects of Dietary Supplementation With Clostridium butyricum on Growth Performance, Apparent Digestibility, Blood Metabolites, Ruminal Fermentation and Bacterial Communities of Fattening Goats","abstract":"<jats:p><jats:italic>Clostridium butyricum</jats:italic> (<jats:italic>C. butyricum</jats:italic>) is currently widely used to improve the body health and productive performance of monogastric animals. However, there have been few reports on the effects and specific mechanism of action of <jats:italic>Clostridium butyricum</jats:italic> in ruminants. This study aimed to investigate the effects of <jats:italic>Clostridium butyricum</jats:italic> supplementation on the growth performance and digestive microbiota of fattening goats. Twenty-four healthy male Albas goats (body weight = 22 ± 2.03 kg) were randomly divided into 3 treatment groups with eight goats in each group. The treatments were as follows: control group (CON) (basal diet, concentrate to forage ratio = 65:35); low-dose <jats:italic>Clostridium butyricum</jats:italic> (LCB) (basal diet plus 2.0 × 10<jats:sup>8</jats:sup> CFU/kg <jats:italic>Clostridium butyricum</jats:italic>); and high-dose <jats:italic>Clostridium butyricum</jats:italic> (HCB) (basal diet plus 1.0 × 10<jats:sup>9</jats:sup> CFU/kg <jats:italic>Clostridium butyricum</jats:italic>). The experiment lasted for 8 weeks after a 2-week adaptation period. Therefore, growth performance and rumen and rectum microbiota were evaluated in goats supplemented with <jats:italic>Clostridium butyricum</jats:italic> and its metabolites. The results showed that dietary supplementation with <jats:italic>Clostridium butyricum</jats:italic> significantly increased the pH (<jats:italic>P</jats:italic> &amp;lt; 0.05), but had no significant effect on growth performance (<jats:italic>P</jats:italic> &amp;gt; 0.05). Compared with the control group, dietary <jats:italic>Clostridium butyricum</jats:italic> supplementation significantly increased the relative abundance of <jats:italic>Prevotella_1, Christensenellaceae AE_R-7_Group</jats:italic> and <jats:italic>Prevotellaceae AE_UCG-003</jats:italic> (<jats:italic>P</jats:italic> &amp;lt; 0.05), and significantly decreased <jats:italic>Succiniclasticum</jats:italic> and <jats:italic>Muribaculaceae_unclassified</jats:italic> (<jats:italic>P</jats:italic> &amp;lt; 0.05). The relative abundance of <jats:italic>Clostridium</jats:italic> in the rumen was &amp;lt;1.0%. Moreover, 16S rDNA analysis showed that the fecal <jats:italic>Clostridium</jats:italic> or <jats:italic>Clostridium butyricum</jats:italic> count was significantly decreased (<jats:italic>P</jats:italic> &amp;lt; 0.05), and the relative abundance of <jats:italic>Alistipes</jats:italic> and <jats:italic>Akkermansia</jats:italic> was increased (<jats:italic>P</jats:italic> &amp;lt; 0.10) in the low-dose group compared with the control group. Supplementing <jats:italic>Clostridium butyricum</jats:italic> in a high-concentrate diet did not significantly affect the performance of goats, while regulation of the gastrointestinal microbiota and related metabolites was associated with rumen fermentation.</jats:p>","journal":"Frontiers in Nutrition","year":2022,"id":589777,"datarank":0.8980784964296988,"base_score":3.2188758248682006,"endowment":3.2188758248682006,"self_citation_contribution":0.48283137373023016,"citation_network_contribution":0.4152471226994686,"self_endowment_contribution":0.48283137373023016,"citer_contribution":0.4152471226994686,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":24,"citer_count":22,"citers_with_citation_signal":15,"citers_with_endowment":15,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":null,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":false,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":null,"fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":1508962,"name":"Qingyuan Yu","orcid":null,"position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":873851,"name":"Jihong Wang","orcid":"0000-0001-9271-0218","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1508963,"name":"Yidong Yu","orcid":null,"position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1508964,"name":"Yonggen Zhang","orcid":null,"position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1431374,"name":"Yukun Sun","orcid":"0000-0002-0724-2040","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1508961,"name":"Chengrui Zhang","orcid":null,"position":0,"is_corresponding":false}],"reference_count":0,"raw_metadata":{"has_enrichment":true,"resolved":true,"title":"Effects of Dietary Supplementation With Clostridium butyricum on Growth Performance, Apparent Digestibility, Blood Metabolites, Ruminal Fermentation and Bacterial Communities of Fattening Goats","abstract":"<jats:p><jats:italic>Clostridium butyricum</jats:italic> (<jats:italic>C. butyricum</jats:italic>) is currently widely used to improve the body health and productive performance of monogastric animals. However, there have been few reports on the effects and specific mechanism of action of <jats:italic>Clostridium butyricum</jats:italic> in ruminants. This study aimed to investigate the effects of <jats:italic>Clostridium butyricum</jats:italic> supplementation on the growth performance and digestive microbiota of fattening goats. Twenty-four healthy male Albas goats (body weight = 22 ± 2.03 kg) were randomly divided into 3 treatment groups with eight goats in each group. The treatments were as follows: control group (CON) (basal diet, concentrate to forage ratio = 65:35); low-dose <jats:italic>Clostridium butyricum</jats:italic> (LCB) (basal diet plus 2.0 × 10<jats:sup>8</jats:sup> CFU/kg <jats:italic>Clostridium butyricum</jats:italic>); and high-dose <jats:italic>Clostridium butyricum</jats:italic> (HCB) (basal diet plus 1.0 × 10<jats:sup>9</jats:sup> CFU/kg <jats:italic>Clostridium butyricum</jats:italic>). The experiment lasted for 8 weeks after a 2-week adaptation period. Therefore, growth performance and rumen and rectum microbiota were evaluated in goats supplemented with <jats:italic>Clostridium butyricum</jats:italic> and its metabolites. The results showed that dietary supplementation with <jats:italic>Clostridium butyricum</jats:italic> significantly increased the pH (<jats:italic>P</jats:italic> &amp;lt; 0.05), but had no significant effect on growth performance (<jats:italic>P</jats:italic> &amp;gt; 0.05). Compared with the control group, dietary <jats:italic>Clostridium butyricum</jats:italic> supplementation significantly increased the relative abundance of <jats:italic>Prevotella_1, Christensenellaceae AE_R-7_Group</jats:italic> and <jats:italic>Prevotellaceae AE_UCG-003</jats:italic> (<jats:italic>P</jats:italic> &amp;lt; 0.05), and significantly decreased <jats:italic>Succiniclasticum</jats:italic> and <jats:italic>Muribaculaceae_unclassified</jats:italic> (<jats:italic>P</jats:italic> &amp;lt; 0.05). The relative abundance of <jats:italic>Clostridium</jats:italic> in the rumen was &amp;lt;1.0%. Moreover, 16S rDNA analysis showed that the fecal <jats:italic>Clostridium</jats:italic> or <jats:italic>Clostridium butyricum</jats:italic> count was significantly decreased (<jats:italic>P</jats:italic> &amp;lt; 0.05), and the relative abundance of <jats:italic>Alistipes</jats:italic> and <jats:italic>Akkermansia</jats:italic> was increased (<jats:italic>P</jats:italic> &amp;lt; 0.10) in the low-dose group compared with the control group. Supplementing <jats:italic>Clostridium butyricum</jats:italic> in a high-concentrate diet did not significantly affect the performance of goats, while regulation of the gastrointestinal microbiota and related metabolites was associated with rumen fermentation.</jats:p>","is_dataset_classified":null,"base_score":3.2188758248682006,"endowment":3.2188758248682006,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"views":0,"has_version_chain":false,"is_dataset":false,"is_oa":false,"pmid":"35685891","pmcid":"PMC9173004","openalex_id":"https://openalex.org/W4281386465","authors":[],"funders":[],"total_grants":0,"fwci":4.891,"citation_percentile":0.95371055,"influential_citations":0,"citation_trend":[{"year":2022,"count":4},{"year":2023,"count":2},{"year":2024,"count":9},{"year":2025,"count":7},{"year":2026,"count":2}],"oa_status":"gold","license":"cc-by","oa_locations":[{"url":"https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnut.2022.888191/pdf","host_type":"journal"},{"url":"https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnut.2022.888191/pdf","host_type":"publisher"},{"url":"https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnut.2022.888191/full","host_type":"publisher"},{"url":"https://doi.org/10.3389/fnut.2022.888191","host_type":"journal"},{"url":"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35685891","host_type":"repository"},{"url":"https://doaj.org/article/9491e600758744d98ae31fcac505a0fe","host_type":"repository"},{"url":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/9173004","host_type":"repository"},{"url":"https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9173004","host_type":"Europe_PMC"},{"url":"https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9173004?pdf=render","host_type":"Europe_PMC"}],"fields_of_study":["Ruminant Nutrition and Digestive Physiology","Phytoestrogen effects and research","Genetic and phenotypic traits in livestock"],"mesh_terms":[],"keywords":["Clostridium butyricum","Clostridium","Biology","Feces","Clostridiaceae","Food science","Clostridia","Fermentation","Animal science","Microbiology","Bacteria","Toxin","Ruminants","Growth performance","Microbiota","Fattening Goats"],"sdg_mappings":[],"linked_datasets":[],"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"database_accessions":[{"name":"bioproject"}],"source":"live","citation_network_status":"fetched"},"created_at":"2026-07-24T06:26:23.619006Z","pmid":null,"pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}