Department of Clinical Veterinary Medicine, College of Animal Science and Technology, Guangxi University, Nanning, China.
Department of Veterinary Parasitology, Sindh Agriculture University Tando Jam, Sindh, Pakistan.
J Appl Microbiol. 2021 Jul;131(1):425-434. doi: 10.1111/jam.14928. Epub 2020 Dec 3.
In this study, we have examined the individual and combined protective mechanism of probiotic and Bidens pilosa on the performance and gut health of chickens during Eimeria tenella infection over a 29-day experimental trial.
A total of one hundred and fifty 1-day-old chickens were equally distributed into five treatment groups with three biological replicates: two groups were allocated as control groups (control group untreated unchallenged, CG and control positive untreated challenged, CPG) and three groups were fed diets with probiotic (PG), B. pilosa (BPG) and probiotic + B. pilosa (PG + BPG) and challenged with E. tenella. Birds of all groups were assessed for pre and post-infection body weights, oocysts shedding, caecal lesion scores and mRNA expression levels of apoptosis related proteins (Bcl-2, Bax and caspase-3), antioxidant enzymes (CAT and SOD 1), pro-inflammatory cytokines (IL-6 and IL-8) and tight junction proteins (CLDN 1 and ZO 1). Our results revealed that during infection (day 21-29), E. tenella challenged chickens significantly decreased the body weight compared with uninfected control chickens; however, there was no significant effect on body weight of chickens fed with probiotic, B. pilosa and probiotic + B. pilosa was observed. Eimeria tenella challenged untreated birds increased (P < 0·05) oocysts shedding, destructive ratio of caeca and mortality as compared to treated challenged birds. CPG group up-regulated the mRNA expression levels of anti-apoptosis protein Bcl-2 while down-regulated the pro-apoptosis protein Bax relative to PG, BPG and PG + BPG groups. Moreover chickens fed probiotic, B. pilosa and probiotic + B. pilosa diets enhanced the activities of antioxidant enzymes, pro-inflammatory cytokines and tight junction proteins with the comparison of control positive untreated challenged chickens.
These findings elaborated that feed supplementation of probiotic and B. pilosa (individually or in combination) appeared to be effective in inhibiting the occurrence of disease and decreasing the severity of Eimeria infection in chickens.
This study explained the underlying anti-coccidial mechanism in which probiotic and B. pilosa (individually and/or in combination) improve the performance of chicken and protect against gut inflammatory responses caused by E. tenella.
在这项研究中，我们研究了益生菌和鬼针草在鸡感染柔嫩艾美耳球虫期间的 29 天实验中对鸡的性能和肠道健康的个体和联合保护机制。
总共 150 只 1 日龄鸡被平均分配到五个处理组，每组三个生物学重复：两组为对照组（未处理未感染对照，CG 和未处理感染对照，CPG），三组喂饲含有益生菌（PG）、鬼针草（BPG）和益生菌+鬼针草（PG+BPG）的日粮，并感染柔嫩艾美耳球虫。所有组别的鸡都在感染前和感染后进行体重评估、卵囊脱落、盲肠病变评分和凋亡相关蛋白（Bcl-2、Bax 和 caspase-3）、抗氧化酶（CAT 和 SOD1）、促炎细胞因子（IL-6 和 IL-8）和紧密连接蛋白（CLDN1 和 ZO1）的 mRNA 表达水平。结果表明，在感染期间（第 21-29 天），感染柔嫩艾美耳球虫的鸡与未感染对照鸡相比，体重显著下降；然而，给鸡喂饲益生菌、鬼针草和益生菌+鬼针草并没有显著影响鸡的体重。与治疗性感染的鸡相比，未处理感染的鸡的卵囊脱落、盲肠破坏率和死亡率增加（P<0.05）。CPG 组与 PG、BPG 和 PG+BPG 组相比，抗凋亡蛋白 Bcl-2 的 mRNA 表达水平上调，而促凋亡蛋白 Bax 的表达水平下调。此外，与未处理感染对照鸡相比，给鸡喂饲益生菌、鬼针草和益生菌+鬼针草日粮可增强抗氧化酶、促炎细胞因子和紧密连接蛋白的活性。
这些发现表明，饲料中添加益生菌和鬼针草（单独或联合）似乎可以有效抑制疾病的发生，并降低鸡柔嫩艾美耳球虫感染的严重程度。
本研究解释了益生菌和鬼针草（单独和/或联合）改善鸡性能和保护鸡免受柔嫩艾美耳球虫引起的肠道炎症反应的潜在抗球虫机制。
