Effects of Eimeria maxima infection doses on growth performance and gut health in dual-infection model of necrotic enteritis in broiler chickens

Frontiers in Physiology

Physiology

Hyun Soon Lillehoj¹  Guanchen Liu²  Janghan Choi²  Woo Kyun Kim²  Hanseo Ko²  Venkata Sesha Reddy Choppa²  Doyun Goo² 

[1] Animal Bioscience and Biotechnology Laboratory, Beltsville Agricultural Research Center, Agricultural Research Service, United States Department of Agriculture, Beltsville, MD, United States;Department of Poultry Science, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, United States;

关键词: broiler chicken;    Clostridium perfringens;    Eimeria maxima;    intestinal health;    necrotic enteritis;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fphys.2023.1269398

 received in 2023-07-29, accepted in 2023-08-31,  发布年份 2023

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of the different doses of Eimeria maxima (EM) oocysts on growth performance and intestinal health in broiler chickens challenged with a dual infection model of necrotic enteritis (NE) using EM and NetB+ Clostridium perfringens (CP). A total of 432 fourteen-d-old male Cobb 500 broiler chickens were divided into 6 groups with 6 replicates each. The six different groups were as follows: Control, non-challenged; T0+, challenged with CP at 1 × 109 colony forming unit; T5K+, T0+ + 5,000 EM oocysts; T10K+, T0+ + 10,000 EM oocysts; T20K+; T0+ + 20,000 EM oocysts; and T40K+; T0+ + 40,000 EM oocysts. The challenge groups were orally inoculated with EM strain 41A on d 14, followed by NetB+ CP strain Del-1 on 4 days post inoculation (dpi). Increasing EM oocysts decreased d 21 body weight, body weight gain, feed intake (linear and quadratic, p < 0.001), and feed efficiency (linear, p < 0.001) from 0 to 7 dpi. Increasing EM oocysts increased jejunal NE lesion score and intestinal permeability on 5, 6, and 7 dpi (linear, p < 0.05). On 7 dpi, increasing the infection doses of EM oocysts increased jejunal CP colony counts (linear, p < 0.05) and increased fecal EM oocyst output (linear and quadratic, p < 0.001). Furthermore, increasing the infection doses of EM oocysts decreased the villus height to crypt depth ratios and the goblet cell counts (linear, p < 0.05) on 6 dpi. Increasing EM oocysts downregulated the expression of MUC2, B0AT, B0,+AT, PepT1, GLUT2, AvBD3 and 9, LEAP2, and TLR4, while upregulating CLDN1, CATHL3, IL-1β, IFN-γ, TNFSF15, TNF-α, IL-10, and Gam56 and 82 on 6 dpi (linear, p < 0.05). Additionally, increasing EM oocysts decreased Pielou’s evenness and Shannon’s entropy (linear, p < 0.01). In conclusion, increasing the infection doses of EM significantly aggravated the severity of NE and exerted negative impact on intestinal health from 5 to 7 dpi.

【 授权许可】

Unknown   
Copyright © 2023 Goo, Choi, Ko, Choppa, Liu, Lillehoj and Kim.