Study of the Protective Effects of Baihu Decoction on Heat-Stressed Laying Hens on the Basis of Metabolomics Analysis.

This study aimed to investigate the effects of dietary supplementation with Baihu decoction (BHD) on serum antioxidant indices and plasma metabolomic profiles in heat-stressed laying hens. One hundred eighty Hy-Line Brown laying hens were randomly divided into three groups. The normal control (NC) group and the heat stress (HS) group were fed with the basal diets, whereas the BHD group was supplemented with 0.75% BHD dry powder in the basal diet. The NC hens were kept at 26 ± 1 C, whereas HS and BHD groups' temperatures were raised to 32 ± 1 C on day 14. At the end of the experiment, blood samples were collected to assess antioxidant indices. The metabolic mass spectra were then analyzed using liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry. The results indicated that 1) heat exposure significantly decreased serum catalase (CAT) and superoxide dismutase (SOD) activities and increased malondialdehyde (MDA) levels compared with the NC group. BHD supplementation significantly restored CAT and SOD activities and reduced MDA content toward normal levels. 2) Plasma metabolomics identified 26 differentially expressed metabolites, among which 17 were potentially associated with BHD's protective effects. Enrichment analysis revealed significant alterations in several metabolic pathways, including Val, Leu, and Ile biosynthesis. These findings suggest that BHD alleviates HS by modulating antioxidant capacity and key metabolic pathways, providing new insights into the physiologic mechanisms underlying BHD's protective role from a metabolomic perspective.