Protective effect of chicken egg yolk immunoglobulins (IgY) against enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli K88 adhesion in weaned piglets

Abstract

Background Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli K88 ( E. coli K88) are considered as a major cause of diarrhea and death in newly weaned piglets. Oral passive immunization with chicken egg yolk immunoglobulins (IgY) have attracted considerable attention for treatment of gastrointestinal infection due to its high specificity. In this study it was estimated the protective effect of anti-K88 fimbriae IgY against E. coli K88 adhesion to piglet intestinal mucus in vitro and to investigate the potential use of IgY for controlling E. coli -induced diarrhea in weaned piglets in vivo. Results E. coli K88 was incubated with IgY for 24 h, and the bacterial growth profiles showed that specific IgY with a concentration higher than 5 mg/mL was observed to significantly inhibit the growth of E. coli K88 compared to nonspecific yolk powder in a liquid medium. Moreover, pretreatment with 50 mg/mL of IgY was found to significantly decrease the adhesion ability of E. coli K88 to porcine jejunal and ileal mucus, further supported by the observations from our immunofluorescence microscopic analysis. In vivo, administration of IgY successfully protected piglets from diarrhea caused by E. coli K88 challenge. Additionally, IgY treatment efficiently alleviated E. coli -induced intestinal inflammation in piglets as the gene expression levels of inflammatory cytokines TNF-α, IL-22, IL-6 and IL-1β in IgY-treated piglets remained unchanged after E. coli K88 infection. Furthermore, IgY significantly prevented E. coli K88 adhering to the jejunal and ileal mucosa of piglets with E. coli infection and significantly decreased E. coli and enterotoxin expression in colonic contents. Conclusion Outcome of the study demonstrated that IgY against the fimbrial antigen K88 was able to significantly inhibit the growth of E. coli K88, block the binding of E. coli to small intestinal mucus, and protect piglets from E. coli -induced diarrhea. These results indicate that passive immunization with IgY may be useful to prevent bacterial colonization and to control enteric diseases due to E. coli infection. The study has great clinical implication to provide alternative therapy to antibiotics in E coli induced diarrhea. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1186/s12917-019-1958-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Responses of Intestinal Microbiota and Immunity to Increasing Dietary Levels of Iron Using a Piglet Model

“…The body weight, feed intake, and fecal score were detected weekly, and the feed conversation ratio was calculated. The fecal consistency score was assessed by a modified method according to our previous study (Wang et al, 2019): 1 = solid, 2 = pasty, and 3 = liquid. The piglets were sacrificed on day 21 to collect blood, liver tissue, intestinal tissue (including duodenum, jejunum, ileum, and colon), and digesta of cecum and colon.…”

Effect of Replacing in-Feed Antibiotic Growth Promoters with a Combination of Egg Immunoglobulins and Phytomolecules on the Performance, Serum Immunity, and Intestinal Health of Weaned Pigs Challenged with Escherichia coli K88

“…In accordance with the current study, previous studies reported that the use of IgY could reduce the incidence of diarrhea of weaned piglets challenged with toxicogenic E. coli [ 11 , 26 , 41 ]. The clinical symptoms observed for piglets suggested that IgY-treated piglets recovering from E. coli K88 induced-diarrhea was faster than piglets untreated with IgY [ 42 ]. Moreover, dietary supplementation with a mixture of plant essential oils, eucalyptus essential oil, Petroselinum crispum essential oil, and thyme essential oil had a similar anti-diarrheal effect to AGPs [ 34 ].…”

“…However, the antibacterial effect of IgY may be related to its ability to prevent the adhesion of pathogenic bacteria in the intestine [ 9 , 12 ]. IgY was found to significantly block E. coli K88 to bind to porcine small intestinal mucus [ 42 ]. This blocking was effective because IgY can bind to the components exposed on the surface of E. coli K88 resulting in structural alterations, which might impede its adhesion to intestine [ 50 , 51 ].…”

“…This blocking was effective because IgY can bind to the components exposed on the surface of E. coli K88 resulting in structural alterations, which might impede its adhesion to intestine [ 50 , 51 ]. In addition, a significant decrease of heat-stable enterotoxin expression in colonic chyme was also observed in IgY-treated group at 72 h after E. coli infection compared with untreated group [ 42 ]. The control of E. coli K88-induced incidence of PWD by IgY was mainly through the restriction of E. coli K88 adhesion to intestinal mucus and the reduction of its enterotoxin expression.…”

The impact of porcine spray-dried plasma protein and dried egg protein harvested from hyper-immunized hens, provided in the presence or absence of subtherapeutic levels of antibiotics in the feed, on growth and indicators of intestinal function and physiology of nursery pigs

“…In this study, feeding DEP significantly reduced the mucosal concentration of pro-inflammatory IL-1β compared to CON. The IgY in DEP can block the adhesion of pathogens to the epithelial lining, preventing or reducing the need for an inflammatory response and overproduction of IL-1β ( Wang et al, 2019 ). The mucosal concentration of pro-inflammatory IL-18 was increased by CON when AB+ diets were fed, but the concentration was not affected by the other diets.…”