Immunomodulatory properties of dietary plum on coccidiosis.
The current study was conducted to evaluate the effect of dietary supplementation with a lyophilized powder made from plums (P) on host protective immune responses against avian coccidiosis, the most economically important parasitic disease of poultry. One-day-old White Leghorn chickens were fed from the time of hatch with a standard diet either without P (control and P 0 groups) or supplemented with P at 0.5% (P 0.5) or 1.0% (P 1.0) of the diet. Animals in the P 0, P 0.5, and P 1.0 groups were orally challenged with 5000 sporulated oocysts of Eimeria acervulina at day 12 post-hatch, while control animals were uninfected. Dietary supplementation of P increased body weight gain, reduced fecal oocyst shedding, and increased the levels of mRNAs for interferon-gamma and interleukin-15 in the P 1.0 group at 10 days post-infection compared with the P 0 group. Furthermore, chickens fed either the P 0.5 or P 1.0 diets exhibited significantly greater spleen cell proliferation compared with the non-plum P 0 group. These results indicate that plum possesses immune enhancing properties, and that feeding chickens a plum-supplemented diet augments protective immunity against coccidiosis.
Animal Parasitic Diseases Laboratory, Animal and Natural Resources Institute, United States Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, Beltsville, MD, USA.
Sung-Hyen
SH
Lee
Hyun S
HS
Lillehoj
Erik P
EP
Lillehoj
Soo-Muk
SM
Cho
Dong-Woon
DW
Park
Yeong-Ho
YH
Hong
Hye-Kyung
HK
Chun
Hong-Ju
HJ
Park
D000821:Animal Feed / Q000032:analysis; D000824:Animal Nutritional Physiological Phenomena; D000818:Animals; D002645:Chickens / Q000276:immunology*; D003048:Coccidiosis / Q000276:immunology / Q000517:prevention & control / Q000662:veterinary*; D004032:Diet / Q000662:veterinary*; D004539:Eimeria / Q000276:immunology*; D005243:Feces / Q000469:parasitology; D005260:Female; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation / Q000502:physiology; D007371:Interferon-gamma / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D019409:Interleukin-15 / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D008214:Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology; D008297:Male; D033661:Oocysts; D011201:Poultry Diseases / Q000276:immunology / Q000517:prevention & control*; D027861:Prunus / Q000276:immunology*; D013047:Specific Pathogen-Free Organisms; D013154:Spleen / Q000166:cytology; D015430:Weight Gain
D019409:Interleukin-15; D007371:Interferon-gamma