The Impact of Benzoic Acid Supplementation on Intestinal Genes in Suckling Lambs

A total of 40 male newborn Hu sheep lambs were randomly divided into control and benzoic acid supplementation groups. From the 3rd day after birth, each lamb in the BA group was fed 100 mg of benzoic acid daily, and their body weights were recorded. On the 28th day before slaughter, five lambs from each group were randomly selected to collect plasma samples and were then sacrificed. Duodenal, jejunal, ileal, and cecal digesta were collected for microbial community and metabonomics analyses, and mucosa samples from these intestinal segments were used for transcriptome analysis. The results revealed that benzoic acid supplementation significantly increased the average daily growth of suckling lambs. The results of the transcriptional KEGG enrichment analysis showed that duodenal mucosal DEGs were primarily enriched in the PPAR signaling pathway. The jejunal mucosal DEGs were enriched in protein and fat digestion and absorption, as well as pyrimidine and tryptophan metabolism, whereas the ileal and cecal mucosal DEGs were enriched in the NOD-like receptor signaling pathway and DNA replication, respectively.