Effect of Probiotics and Multi-Component Feed Additives on Microbiota, Gut Barrier and Immune Responses in Broiler Chickens During Subclinical Necrotic Enteritis

Abstract

The withdrawal of antibiotic growth promoters from poultry feed has increased the risk of necrotic enteritis (NE) outbreaks. This study examined the effects of a probiotic (PROB) or probiotic/prebiotic/essential oil supplement (PPEO) during a subclinical NE challenge. On day (d) of hatch, 960 male broilers were randomized to four groups (8 pens/treatment, 30 birds/pen) including (1) negative control (NC): corn-soybean meal diet; (2) positive control (PC): NC + 20 g Virginiamycin/ton diet; (3) NC + 227 g PROB/ton diet; and (4) NC + 453 g PPEO/ton diet. One d after placement, birds were challenged by a coccidia vaccine to induce NE. Feed intake and body weights were measured on d 8 (NE onset) and end of each feeding period. On d 8, the small intestines of three birds/pen were examined for NE lesions. Jejunum samples and ileal mucosal scrapings from one bird/pen were respectively collected to measure mRNA abundance (d 8 and d 14) and profile the microbiota (d 8 and d 42). Data were analyzed in JMP or QIIME 2 and significance between treatments identified by LSD (P < 0.05). PROB and PPEO had significantly lower mortality (d 0–14) and NE lesion scores compared to NC. Feed conversion ratio was significantly lower in PC, PROB, and PPEO, while average daily gain was higher in PPEO and PC groups compared to NC from d 0–42. On d 8 and d 14, mRNA abundance of claudin-3 was higher in PPEO compared to NC. On d 14, compared to NC, mRNA abundance of sIgA and PGC-1α in PROB and PPEO were lower and higher, respectively. Compared to NC, PPEO increased mTOR abundance on d 14. On d 8, relative abundance of Clostridium sensu stricto 1, Ruminiclostridium9, Prevotellaceae, Prevotellaceae UCG-014, ASF356, and Muribaculaceae was higher in NC compared to PPEO and PROB, while Lactobacillus was lower in NC. Escherichia-Shigella had higher abundance in PC compared to PPEO and PROB. Collectively, these data indicate that during a subclinical naturally occurring NE, supplementation of PROB or PPEO supports performance and reduces intestinal lesions, potentially through modifying tight junction proteins, gut microbiota, immune responses, and cell metabolism.

Dietary Lactobacillus fermentum and Bacillus coagulans Supplementation Modulates Intestinal Immunity and Microbiota of Broiler Chickens Challenged by Clostridium perfringens

“…Meanwhile, they mainly modulated the functions of Th1, Th17, and Treg cells. However, Emami et al ( 25 ) reported that Bacillus licheniformis alone or combined with prebiotic and essential oil downregulated the IFN-γ, IL-10, and IL-17 mRNA abundance in the jejunum of broilers with subclinical NE, indicating a inhibition of Th2, Th17, and Treg cell function.…”

“…It has been indicated that there was a positive correlation between the relative abundance of Escherichia-Shigella with NE occurrence in broilers ( 45 ). Numerous studies evidenced that C. perfringens challenge increased the Escherichia-Shigella abundance in the ileum, and probiotic supplementation significantly or numerically decreased it ( 13 , 25 ). However, in the present study, C. perfringens challenge decreased Escherichia-Shigella in the cecum on day 28, which was increased by B. coagulans .…”

Managing broilers gut health with antibiotic-free diets during subclinical necrotic enteritis

“…To simulate field conditions, a unique, naturally occurring model developed by our laboratory was applied to induce subclinical NE ( Calik et al., 2019 ; Emami et al., 2019 , 2020 ) using a concentrated dose of a commercial coccidiosis vaccine. Briefly, this model consists of spraying a high dose (10 X) of commercial coccidiosis vaccine 24 h after bird placement, which in conjunction with the presence of C .…”

“…The 16S sequencing data were analyzed as previously described ( Emami et al., 2020 ). Briefly, data were analyzed using quantitative insight into microbial ecology ( QIIME ) software package 2 ( Bolyen et al., 2019 ) and samples for day 8 and day 28 were rarefied to 10,891 and 36,075 sequences, respectively.…”

Phytogenic Water Additives Improve Broiler Growth Performance via Modulation of Intermediary Metabolism-Related Signaling Pathways

“…A ban on the use of antibiotic growth promoters (AGPs) has energized scientific research to identify reliable and effective alternatives. Probiotics, prebiotics, synbiotics, organic acids, antimicrobial peptides, and phytogenics are among the various groups of alternatives to in-feed antibiotics that have gained popularity in animal production research [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 ]. Phytogenics, also called phytobiotics or botanicals, are a growing class of in-feed products derived from plants and plant products such as herbs, spices, essential oils, and blends of these products.…”