Search

Abstract Background Tibial dyschondroplasia (TD) is a bone disorder in which dead chondrocytes accumulate as a result of apoptosis and non-vascularization in the tibial bone of broiler chickens. The pathogenicity of TD is under extensive research but is yet not fully understood. Several studies have linked it to apoptosis and non-vascularization in the tibial growth plate (GP). We conceived the idea to find the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in chicken erythrocytes which vary in expression over time using a likelihood-ratio test (LRT). Thiram was used to induce TD in chickens, and then injected Ex-FABP protein at 0, 20, and 50 μg.kg-1 to evaluate its therapeutic effect on 30 screened immunity and angiogenesis-related genes using quantitative PCR (qPCR). The histopathology was also performed in TD chickens to explore the shape, circularity, arrangements of chondrocytes and blood vessels. Results Clinical lameness was observed in TD chickens, which decreased with the injection of Ex-FABP. Histopathological findings support Ex-FABP as a therapeutic agent for the morphology and vascularization of affected chondrocytes in TD chickens. qPCR results of 10 immunity (TLR2, TLR3, TLR4, TLR5, TLR7, TLR15, IL-7, MyD88, MHCII, and TRAF6) and 20 angiogenesis-related genes (ITGAV, ITGA2, ITGB2, ITGB3, ITGA5, IL1R1, TBXA2R, RPL17, F13A1, CLU, RAC2, RAP1B, GIT1, FYN, IQGAP2, PTCH1, NCOR2, VAV-like, PTPN11, MAML3) regulated when Ex-FABP is injected to TD chickens. Conclusion Immunity and angiogenesis-related genes can be responsible for apoptosis of chondrocytes and vascularization in tibial GP. Injection of Ex-FABP protein to thiram induced TD chickens decrease the chondrocytes damage and improves vascularization.

This study aimed to investigate the effect of dietary lysolecithin (LYSO) and lipase supplementation on productive performance, nutrient retention, and meat quality of broiler chicken fed a low energy diet. For this purpose, a total of 360 chicks were randomly alienated into six treatments, having six replicates (no = 10) birds each replicate. The dietary treatments were followed as control (CON fed as normal energy diet), LE (CON—100 kcal/kg from BD. basal diet), LIP 0.04 (LE + 0.04% lipase), LYSO 0.04 (LE + 0.04% lysolecithin), LIP + LYSO 0.04 (LE + 0.04% lipase and lysolecithin), and LIP + LYSO 0.08 (LE. + 0.08% lipase and lysolecithin). The birds fed with LIP + LYSO 0.04 exhibited higher weight gain than LYSO 0.08 and CON (p < 0.05), and higher feed intake (F.I.) was also observed in LIP + LYSO 0.04 than CON. However, lipase and emulsifier dietary effects were non-significant on FCR. (p > 0.05). Effects of experimental diets on dry matter (DM), crude protein (CP), and fat digestibility were also non-significant (p > 0.05). Similarly, the blood biochemical profile (total cholesterol, triglycerides, LDL, HDL) of the broiler showed no significant difference (p > 0.05) by dietary treatments. Similarly, liver enzymes, AST and A.L.T., were also not statistically significant (p > 0.05) among all dietary treatments. Similarly, supplementation of LIP and LYSO had a non-significant (p > 0.05) effect on breast meat fatty acids composition. Conclusively, adding LIP + LYSO 0.08 to a low energy diet could demonstrate better growth performance and reduce the negative impact of a low-energy diet.

Coccidiosis is a well-known poultry disease that causes the severe destruction of the intestinal tract, resulting in reduced growth performance and immunity, disrupted gut homeostasis and perturbed gut microbiota. Supplementation of probiotics were explored to play a key role in improving growth performance, enhancing innate and adaptive immunity, maintaining gut homeostasis and modulating gut microbiota during enteric infection. This study was therefore designed to investigate the chicken gut whole microbiota responses to Bacillus subtilis (B. subtilis) probiotic feeding in the presence as well as absence of Eimeria infection. For that purpose, 84 newly hatched chicks were assigned into four groups, including (1) non-treated non-challenged control group (CG − ET), (2) non-treated challenged control group (CG + ET), (3) B. subtilis-fed non-challenged group (BS − ET) and (4) B. subtilis-fed challenged group (BS + ET). CG + ET and BS + ET groups were challenged with Eimeria tenella (E. tenella) on 21 day of housing. Our results for Alpha diversity revealed that chickens in both infected groups (CG + ET and BS + ET) had lowest indexes of Ace, Chao 1 and Shannon, while highest indexes of Simpson were found in comparison to non-challenged groups (CG − ET and BS − ET). Firmicutes was the most affected phylum in all experimental groups following Proteobacteria and Bacteroidota, which showed increased abundance in both non-challenged groups, whereas Proteobacteria and Bacteroidota affected both challenged groups. The linear discriminant analysis effect size method (lEfSe) analysis revealed that compared to the CG + ET group, supplementation of probiotic in the presence of Eimeria infection increased the abundance of some commensal genera, included Clostridium sensu stricto 1, Corynebacterium, Enterococcus, Romboutsia, Subdoligranulum, Bacillus, Turicibacter and Weissella, with roles in butyrate production, anti-inflammation, metabolic reactions and the modulation of protective pathways against pathogens. Collectively, these findings evidenced that supplementation of B. subtilis probiotic was positively influenced with commensal genera, thereby alleviating the Eimeria-induced intestinal disruption.