Effects of dietary methionine plus cysteine levels on growth performance and intestinal antibody production in broilers during Eimeria challenge

Abstract

Research has shown that methionine+ cysteine (M+C) requirements may be higher when chickens are infected with Eimeria app. In a 4 × 2 factorial design, broilers (11 to 21 D) were fed one of 4 corn–soybean meal-based diets containing either 0.6, 0.8, 0.9, or 1.0% standardized ileal digestible (SID) M+C; on day 14, broilers from each diet were gavaged with either phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) or a commercial coccidiosis vaccine (at 100 × vaccine dose) which provide a mixture of live Eimeria acervulina , Eimeria maxima , and Eimeria tenella oocysts. Growth performance was recorded from day 11 to 21. Plasma and intestinal luminal samples were collected on days 14 and 21. Intestine lesion scores and fecal oocyst counts were conducted on day 21. Regardless of dietary SID M+C levels, compared to PBS gavaged broilers, the Eimeria -challenged broilers had (1) decreased ( P < 0.05) body weight gain (BWG), feed intake (FI), and gain-to-feed ratio (G:F); (2) increased ( P < 0.05) intestinal lesion scores and fecal oocyst counts; (3) increased ( P < 0.05) plasma anti- Eimeria IgG, and intestinal luminal total IgA and anti- Eimeria IgA concentrations; and (4) increased ( P < 0.05) levels of duodenum luminal gamma interferon (IFN-γ) and interleukin-10 (IL-10), as well as jejunum and cecum luminal IFN-γ concentrations. Regardless of Eimeria challenge, when compared to 0.6% SID M+C, broilers fed ≥0.8% SID M+C had (1) increased ( P < 0.05) BWG, FI, and G:F and (2) increased ( P < 0.05) levels of jejunum luminal total IgA. After Eimeria challenge, broilers fed 0.8% SID M+C had increased ( P < 0.05) levels of jejunum luminal anti- Eimeria IgA compared to broilers fed diets containing 0.6 and 1.0% SID M+C. Collectively, in 11- to 21-D broilers, the growth suppression caused by Eimeria infection could not be mitigated by further increasing dietary M+C alone ≥0.8%. Further research should investigate interactions between dietary M+C and other nutrients for support of immune function and growth in pathogen-challenged broilers.

Estimation of digestible sulphur amino acids requirements for growth performance and immune responses to Newcastle disease and avian influenza vaccination in broilers

“…In agreement with other published work (Ohta and Ishibashi 1995;Conde-Aguilera et al 2013;Rehman et al 2019;Ghavi et al 2020;Ren et al 2020;Zarghi et al 2020b), in the current study increasing supplemental DL-Met improved growth performance (Table 3 and Figures 1-3). Methionine supplementation improves dietary amino acid balance and consequently promotes LBW and WG growth by increasing protein synthesis and decreasing fat synthesis, leading to enhanced feed efficiency.…”

“…Methionine is not only the first limiting amino acid for broiler growth but has also been shown to play vital roles in immune function. Methionine is a precursor of polyamines required for immune cell proliferation, induction/regulation of inflammation, and pathogen recognition (Ren et al 2020). Met deficiency may impair the immune system and metabolic disorders (Rehman et al 2019).…”

“…However, varying amounts of the digestible sulphur amino acids requirement have been reported (Table 8). Published estimates of the broiler chicken's digestible SAAs requirement are pretty variable and range from 0.68% (Faridi et al 2016) to 0.8-1.0% (Ren et al 2020). Several factors might have caused a wide range in the requirements among those experiments.…”

The effects of total sulfur amino acids on the intestinal health status of broilers challenged with Eimeria spp.

“…This suggests that the use of the 100% TSAA diet, obtained by the addition of Met to the diet, could partially ameliorate the negative effect of the Eimeria challenge on feed efficiency during the challenge phase. Ren et al. (2019) , however, did not find interactions between the Eimeria challenge and TSAA levels and concluded that the supplementation of TSAA at levels higher than 0.80%, on a standardized ileal digestibility basis, was not able to counteract the negative effects of a cocci infection.…”

“…Unexpectedly, we did not observe many interactions between the Eimeria challenge and TSAA treatments. This finding could be an indication that 1) there was no change in the TSAA requirement when broilers were infected with Eimeria ( Murillo et al., 1976 ; Willis and Baker, 1981 ; Ren et al., 2019 ) and 2) the supplementation of Met or TSAA alone was not sufficient to mitigate the negative effects of an Eimeria infection on growth and intestinal health ( Ren et al., 2019 ). Nevertheless, our overall results showed that the Eimeria challenge negatively affected growth performance, intestinal histomorphology, and nutrient digestion; impaired the antioxidant system; and modulated the expression of TJP genes throughout the experimental period.…”