Skip to main content

ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Vet. Sci.
Sec. Animal Nutrition and Metabolism
Volume 11 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fvets.2024.1501286

Effects of butyric acid glycerol ester supplementation on intestinal nutrient transporter and immune-related genes in broiler chickens challenged with Eimeria maxima

Provisionally accepted
Kouassi Remi Kpodo Kouassi Remi Kpodo *Katarzyna B. Miska Katarzyna B. Miska Lori Schreier Lori Schreier Daniel J. Milliken Daniel J. Milliken Monika Proszkowiec-Weglarz Monika Proszkowiec-Weglarz
  • Animal Biosciences and Biotechnology Laboratory, United States Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, Beltsville, MD, United States

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Coccidiosis negatively affects intestinal health and digestive functions; however, whether butyric acid glycerol ester (BE) can mitigate these negative effects in broiler chickens is unknown. The study objective was to determine the effects of BE on nutrient transporter and intestinal immune genes in chickens infected with Eimeria maxima (EM). Methods: Ross male 708 chicks were fed diets supplemented with 0 (control, C) or 0.25% of BE. On day 21, half the chickens from each feeding group were infected with 0 or 10 3 EM sporulated oocysts creating 4 treatment groups (C, +EM, +BE, and BE+EM; n=6/treatment group). Jejunal and ileal tissues were collected at days 7 and 10 post infection (PI). Results: EM infection reduced (P ≤ 0.02) nutrient transporter genes EAAT3, PEPT2, B o AT, GLUT2, GLUT5, and SGLT1 at days 7 PI in the jejunum and ileum, and EAAT3, PEPT1, PEPT2, and B o AT at day 10 PI in the jejunum. The supplementation of BE increased CAT1 in the jejunum and PEPT1, GLUT2, and GLUT5 (P ≤ 0.04) in the ileum at day 10 PI. A BE x EM interaction was observed (P ≤ 0.02) where GLUT1 and GLUT2 were increased in the jejunum of +BE compared to C chickens at day 10 PI. Among the immune-related genes, EM reduced (P ≤ 0.0001) IgA in jejunum but increased (P = 0.004) TGF-β4 in the jejunum and ileum at day 7 PI. The expression of pIgR was reduced while TLR2 and TLR4 were increased in +EM compared to C chickens at day 7 PI. In addition, IgA was increased (P = 0.01) in the ileum of +BE compared to C chickens at day 10 PI.The results of the study confirmed that Eimeria maxima reduced nutrient transporters and immune-related genes in the jejunum and ileum of chickens. However, although, BE increased the expression of some genes in non-challenged chickens, its supplementation did not prevent the reduction in expression of selected genes caused by EM infection.

    Keywords: Butyric Acid, Coccidiosis, Nutrient transporter genes, Immune genes, Chickens

    Received: 24 Sep 2024; Accepted: 02 Dec 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Kpodo, Miska, Schreier, Milliken and Proszkowiec-Weglarz. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Kouassi Remi Kpodo, Animal Biosciences and Biotechnology Laboratory, United States Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, Beltsville, MD, United States

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.