Omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids enrichment alters performance and immune response in infectious bursal disease challenged broilers

Abstract

BackgroundInfectious bursal disease (IBD) results in economic loss due to mortality, reduction in production efficiency and increasing the usage of antibiotics. This study was carried out to investigate the modulatory roles of dietary n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) enrichment in immune response and performance of IBD challenged broiler chickens.MethodsA total of 300 day old male broiler chicks were assigned to four dietary n-3 PUFA ascending levels as the treatment groups (T1: 0.5; T2: 8.0; T3: 11.5; T4: 16.5) using combinations of tuna oil and sunflower oil. All diets were isocaloric and isonitrogenous. On day 28, all birds were challenged with IBD virus. Antibody titer, cytokine production, bursa lesion pre and post-challenge and lymphoid organ weight were recorded.ResultsOn d 42 the highest body weight was observed in the T2 and T3 and the lowest in T4 chickens. Feed conversion ratio of the T2 broilers was significantly better than the other groups. Although productive parameters were not responded to the dietary n-3 PUFA in a dose-dependent manner, spleen weight, IBD and Newcastle disease antibody titers and IL-2 and IFN-γ concentrations were constantly elevated by n-3 PUFA enrichment.ConclusionsDietary n-3 PUFA enrichment may improve the immune response and IBD resistance, but the optimum performance does not coincide with the optimum immune response. It seems that dietary n-3 PUFA modulates the broiler chicken performance and immune response in a dose-dependent manner. Thus, a moderate level of dietary n-3 PUFA enrichment may help to put together the efficiency of performance and relative immune response enhancement in broiler chickens.

Fontes de óleo na dieta e sua influência no desempenho e na imunidade de frangos de corte

“…Maroufyan et al (2012) também não observaram diferença no ganho de peso corporal de frangos de corte alimentados com ração contendo 7% de óleo de peixe, óleo de milho ou óleo de girassol antes e após as aves serem submetidas a um desafio antigênico. O mesmo resultado é descrito por Parmentier et al (1997) que, utilizando óleo de peixe para avaliar a influência de diferentes concentrações de ácidos graxos ômega-3 sobre o desempenho de frangos de corte, não verificaram diferença no ganho de peso.…”

Review on Natural Growth Promoters Available for Improving Gut Health of Poultry: An Alternative to Antibiotic Growth Promoters

“…There are various reports which reflect the utility of these oil for improving gut and overall immunity of the poultry. In another study combination of tuna oil, sunflower oil and palm oil (contain n-3 PUFAs) improves immune responses of birds, as evidenced by the increase in spleen weight, Infectious Bronchitis Disease (IBD), Newcastle Disease (ND), antibody titres, IL-2 and IFN-concentrations (Maroufyan et al, 2012). Conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) is another type of PUFA that has been used as feed supplement to poultry diets and reported for enhancing the immune response, growth of immune tissue, stimulated T-lymphocyte proliferation, elevate, antibody production and maintain the number of LAB in the gut of chicken (He et al, 2007).…”

Effects of dietary oil sources, calcium and phosphorus levels on growth performance, carcass characteristics and bone quality of broiler chickens

“…It is recommended that when high levels of fat are used in poultry diets, calcium and magnesium levels should be increased (Hakansson 1975). Although some researches have been conducted on the effect of dietary oil and National Research Council (NRC) calcium requirement on broiler performance and carcass quality characteristics (Maroufyan et al 2012;Poorghasemi et al 2013), information on the effect of dietary oil sources and different levels of calcium is very limited. Thus, the objective of this study was to determine the effect of soybean oil (SO), linseed oil (LO) and palm oil (PO) each at 6% with different levels of calcium and phosphorus on the growth performance, bone quality and carcass characteristics of broiler chicken.…”