From Breeders to broilers: maternal antioxidant nutrition and transgenerational impact on productivity, gut health and epigenetics.

of the coordinated Project: This project focuses on the critical window from embryogenesis to the first week post-hatch in broilers, a period when physiological immaturity and early exposure to environmental and nutritional stressors decisively shape the chicks initial resilience. The embryo depends entirely on nutrients and bioactive compounds transferred to the egg, making maternal nutrition a key determinant of early development and adaptation in the offspring. The potential of maternal diets to durably modulate progeny physiology remains poorly understood and falls within the framework of maternal nutritional programming, whereby early nutritional stimuli induce metabolic, immune, or epigenetic adaptations that may even manifest transgenerationally. Antioxidants stand out for their ability to maintain redox balance, reinforce epithelial integrity, and support immune maturation, positioning them as promising candidates to influence early programming and improve embryo development and chick resilience and performance. Antioxidants derived from agro-industrial byproducts are rich in functional compounds with strong biological potential, yet they have been scarcely evaluated in breeder diets, despite their potential to reveal novel maternalembryonic modulation pathways while promoting more sustainable production systems aligned with circular-economy principles. To address these questions, the project leverages rare access to broiler breeders, a unique model that enables investigation of maternal effects on embryonic development, early resilience, and subsequent performance. This coordinated project conducted jointly by UAB and UB aims to develop maternal antioxidant-based nutritional strategies to enhance early-life resilience in broiler offspring. The approach includes: 1) screening and functional characterization of antioxidant candidates; 2) field validation in breeders and assessment of transfer to egg, embryo, and chick; 3) controlled evaluation of their effects during the first week under challenge; and 4) analysis of downstream impacts on meat quality. The methodology comprises three phases. Phase 1 focuses on selection and functional characterization of antioxidants using complementary in vivo, in ovo, and ex vivo models, evaluating maternal-to-egg transfer and effects on embryonic development and intestinal function. Phase 2 validates the most promising antioxidants under broiler breeder field conditions, measuring reproductive performance, transfer of antioxidants and microbiota, embryonic development, and initial chick quality. Phase 3 involves a controlled evaluation of the effects of maternal supplementation on broiler growth, resilience, intestinal health, and meat quality, including physiological, transcriptomic, epigenetic, and microbiota analyses. It compares maternal supplementation with direct post-hatch supplementation and feeds chicks an oxidized-fat diet to assess maternal nutritional programming under oxidative stress. Ultimately, this project seeks to demonstrate the potential of maternal antioxidant nutrition, particularly using agro-industrial byproducts, as a sustainable strategy to enhance broiler viability, resilience, health, and performance.