earticle

영어

This study firstly investigated whether plasma treatment of fertilized eggs before hatching could affect the growth and reproduction of chickens. Four-day-incubated fertilized eggs exposed to non-thermal dielectric barrier discharge plasma at 11.7 kV for 2 min resulted in the highest growth in chickens. Plasma growth-promoting effect in chickens was regulated by the reactive oxygen species homeostasis and the improvement of energy metabolism via increasing serum hormones and adenosine triphosphate levels which were resulted from the regulation of the demethylation levels of growth and hormone biosynthesis-related genes. Interestingly, plasma-treated male chickens showed more conspicuous growth characteristics than females. Further, aspects of the male reproductive system were improved by the plasma treatment: testosterone levels, sperm quality and fertility increased via the double regulation of DNA methylation and miRNA in the testis. In summary, optimized plasma treatment of fertilized eggs can improve chicken growth and male reproductive capacity; this finding can improve profitability and next-generation potential production in poultry breeding.