Improving poultry health – does creatine offer new possibilities?

More information is included in 3 published papers (2023-2024) which came from our labs . See below:

• Dayan, J., Melkman-Zehavi, T., Goldman, N., Soglia, F., Zampiga, M., Petracci, M., ... & Uni, Z. (2023). In-ovo feeding with creatine monohydrate: implications for chicken energy reserves and breast muscle development during the pre-post hatching period. Frontiers in Physiology, 14,
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Conclusions: The study demonstrates that in-ovo creatine monohydrate enrichment of late-term embryos promotes their energy levels towards hatch and modulates early post-hatch muscle development through altered expression of myogenic-related genes. This is implied by higher expression levels of IGF1 and MYOG genes, related to differentiation of myogenic cells, and lower expression of MyoD, related to their proliferation. Thus, resulting in a significantly higher number of myofibers per area with smaller size on day 14 post-hatch. Altogether, the scope of this study exhibits a short-term potential of IOF with highly bioavailable creatine molecule in modulating post-hatch muscle growth and development.

• Dayan, J., Melkman-Zehavi, T., Reicher, N., Braun, U., Inhuber, V., Mabjeesh, S. J., ... & Uni, Z. (2023). Supply and demand of creatine and glycogen in broiler chicken embryos. Frontiers in Physiology, 14,
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Conclusion: This study evaluated the dynamics of creatine, glycogen, and their synthesis during the second half of the broiler embryonic development period. We demonstrate that during incubation, creatine is stored mainly in the breast muscle while glycogen is stored mainly in the YS tissue. The exhibited decrease in glycogen levels towards hatch in all tissues, starting on E19, opposes the increase in creatine levels, suggesting the significance of creatine in energy supply for late-term embryos and hatchlings. Moreover, in breast muscle, as glycogen levels are depleted, high creatine levels are maintained until chick placement, emphasizing the utmost importance of creatine involvement in supplying available energy for the hatching chick before placement at the farm. The fact that creatine is involved in maintaining available energy supply for the hatching broiler chick could have a great impact when considering hatchling quality, uniformity, chick survival and post-hatch performance.

• Dayan, J., & Uni, Z. (2024). Gene ontology defines pre-post-hatch energy dynamics in the complexus muscle of broiler chickens. BMC genomics, 25(1), 1-11.
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Conclusions: There is a dynamic metabolic switch in the hatching muscle during embryo-to-hatchling transition. When glycogen concentration depletes, energy supply to the hatching muscle is maintained by creatine and its de-novo synthesis. Understanding the hatching muscle's energy dynamics is crucial, for reducing hatching failures in endangered avian species, and in domesticated chickens.