Journal of Animal Research and Nutrition

Use of a Probiotic to Ameliorate the Growth Rate and the Inflammation of Broiler Chickens Caused by Eimeria tenella Infection

A multistrain formula (MF) consisted of four selected lactic acid bacteria (LAB) strains was evaluated for its function to ameliorate the growth rate and inflammation of broiler chickens caused by Eimeria tenella parasitizing. Thirty one day broiler chickens were divided into 3 groups with 10 chickens in 2 cages per group. These groups were control, infected and MF groups. In control group, chickens were fed with 0.2 ml PBS and not challenged with E. tenella. In MF group, chickens were gavage fed with 0.2 ml of MF (109 CFU/ml) from day 1 to day 23. On day 14, each chicken in both the infected and MF groups was challenged with 5,000 sporulated E. tenella oocysts. Seven days post infection, it was found that the average body weight gain (ABWG) for chickens in the infected and MF groups were 281.51 ± 61.00 and 295.52 ± 62.16 g per chicken, respectively. Chickens in each group were then sacrificed and their cecal tonsils collected. It was observed that feeding MF could reduce the cecal lesion scores (LS) of the Eimeria infected chickens significantly. In addition, for chickens in the MF group, the levels of cecal gene expression of proinflammatory cytokines, such as interleukin (IL)-1β, IL-6, and interferon (IFN)-γ, were found significantly lower, while anti-inflammation cytokine, ie, IL-10, was significantly higher than those of the chickens in the infected group. This study thus suggests that the MF, which previously has been shown to have antagonistic effect against Salmonella infection and the induced inflammation either in live or in heat killed form, may also be useful for the amelioration of the growth rate and the inflammation of broiler chickens caused by E. tenella infection.

Author(s):

Chih-Yuan Chen, Li-Tsen Chuang, Yue-Cheng Chiang, Chun-Li Lin, Yi-Yang Lien and Hau-Yang Tsen

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