Journal of Animal Science and Veterinary Medicine

This study investigated the Lipoprotein Lipase gene expression profile of broiler chicken breeds administered varying levels of ginger extracts in drinking water. A total of 270 day-old unsexed broiler chicks comprising Arbor acre Plus, Cobb 500 and Ross 308 breeds were randomly allotted into three treatments of 90 birds each, with each of the treatments comprising three blocks of 30 birds of each of the three breeds, replicated into three with 10 birds per replicate in a randomised complete block design arrangement. The Birds in T1 (control had 0.2 g of Oxytetracycline in 2 litres of water). A 200 ml solution of 8 ml of undiluted ginger extract and 192 ml of water was constituted as T2 (4 %). Another 200mls solution of 12mls of undiluted ginger extract added to 188mls of water was constituted as T3 (6 %). The birds were fed a single-phase diet of 22.34% CP and 2948.05 Kcal/KgME for 8 weeks. After slaughter, the guanidinium thiocyanate-phenol-chloroform method was used to extract genomic RNA from the abdominal fat tissue samples. The extracted RNA was converted to cDNA using the FIREScript RT cDNA Synthesis KIT. The synthesised cDNA was amplified using the My IQ single colour real-time thermo-cycler to ascertain the cyclic threshold values used in computing the fold change values.  The results showed significant (p<0.05) differences in the Lipoprotein Lipase gene expression values obtained for the different breeds of broiler chickens administered 0 %, 4 % and 6 % ginger extract. The Lpl gene in Cobb5 was highly up-regulated with a fold change value of 2.48, while it was rather downwardly regulated in Abor acre plus and Ross 308 strains of broiler chickens with fold change values of -1.86 and -0.55, respectively, when administered 0% aqueous ginger extract. However, the Lpl gene was up-regulated in the three strains of broiler chicken administered 4% aqueous ginger extract. Ross 308 was highly upregulated with a fold change value of 4.66, followed by Arbor acre plus with the fold change value of 0.69, while Cobb 500 was the least with the fold change value of 0.1. More so, the Lpl gene in Arbor acre plus and Cobb500 were up-regulated with the fold change values of 1.18 and 2.09, respectively, while Ross 308 had a downward regulation with a fold change value of -1.29 when administered 6% aqueous ginger extract. The study showed that administering aqueous ginger extract regulated the expression of Lipoprotein Lipase gene differently in the different types of broiler breeds examined, indicative of ginger extract fat fat-modulating ability necessary for the production of lean and less fatty meat.