Drinking water contaminants (arsenic, cadmium, lead, benzene, and trichloroethylene). 1. Interaction of contaminants with nutritional status on general performance and immune function in broiler chickens

Abstract

The objective of this study was to examine possible interactions between drinking water contaminants and suboptimal nutritional status for performance and immune function in male broiler chickens. Experimental drinking water contained a mixture of arsenic, benzene, cadmium, lead, and trichloroethylene (TCE) at low concentrations (0.80, 1.3, 5.0, 6.7, and 0.65 ppm) and high concentrations (8.6, 13, 50, 67, and 6.5 ppm). These chemicals were selected because they are among the most common contaminants found in ground water near hazardous waste sites. The experimental diets included feed containing 50% added vitamins and minerals (V&M) and feed without added V&M. Increasing levels of drinking water contaminants and decreasing levels of V&M in diet resulted in significantly (P < or = 0.05) decreased water and feed intake, decreased weight gain, and suppression of natural, humoral, and cell-mediated immune response. In a paired-water study, feed consumption, body weight, and immune function were decreased in chickens provided low and high concentrations of the chemical mixture in drinking water compared with chickens given control drinking water equal to the volumes consumed by the chickens given the low and high concentration of mixture, respectively. A deficiency of dietary V&M caused increased sensitivity to adverse effects of drinking water contaminants.

Immunosuppressive effects of arsenic in broiler chicks exposed to Newcastle disease virus

“…Decreased feed intake and weight gain have also been previously reported in other models, i.e. broilers, and fish (Vodela et al 1997;Pedlar et al 2002). In addition to changes in food intake/weight gain, emaciation and lacrimation in arsenicexposed Mallard ducklings has been documented (Hoffman et al 1992).…”

“…recall that tuberculin injection occurred at Day 32 of age). Still, the increases in phagocytic activity were somewhat unexpected in that other studies with various host species reported that phagocytic activity of isolated macrophages/cells in situ were significantly decreased by arsenic exposure (Vodela et al 1997;Nayak et al 2007;Aggarwal et al 2008;Das et al 2010).…”

“…Moreover, macrophage phagocytic activity was significantly decreased by arsenic exposure in European starlings (Fairbrother et al 1994) and broiler chickens (Vodela et al 1997). In the literature, it is noted that arsenic is an immunosuppressant (Chakraborty et al 2013).…”

“…In addition to general toxicity, arsenic is known to affect lymphocyte, monocyte, and macrophage activities in many mammals, resulting in immunosuppression (Lage et al 2006;Sakurai et al 2006). Likewise, phagocytic activity of macrophages and other immune responses have been reported to be significantly reduced in arsenic-treated broiler chickens (Vodela et al 1997). Generally, arsenic can disrupt glucocorticoid regulation of immune function (Kaltreider et al 2001) and arsenic-mediated apoptosis may lead to a reduced/diminished immune response in mice (Harrison & McCoy 2001), rats (Bustamante et al 1997 (T-lymphocyte macrophage-dependent response) in rats exposed to arsenic.…”

An Artificial Neural Network - Particle Swarm Optimization (ANN- PSO) Approach to Predict Heavy Metals Contamination in Groundwater Resources

“…In this regard, only 2.8% of water on earth is fresh water; therefore, groundwater resources are highly valued due to their certain properties such as wide-spread occurrence and availability, and also good quality as an ideal supply of drinking water; due to these reasons more than half of the world's population depend on groundwater for survival (1)(2)(3)(4)(5)(6)(7). During the last few decades, contamination of groundwater resources is among the most important environmental issues due to hazardous chemical compounds such as heavy metals, pesticides, and petroleum hydrocarbons (8)(9)(10)(11)(12)(13)(14)(15).…”