Immunomodulatory properties of dietary plum on coccidiosis

Comp Immunol Microbiol Infect Dis. 2008 Sep;31(5):389-402. doi: 10.1016/j.cimid.2007.06.005. Epub 2007 Aug 7.

Abstract

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.

Publication types

  • Randomized Controlled Trial
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Animal Feed / analysis
  • Animal Nutritional Physiological Phenomena
  • Animals
  • Chickens / immunology*
  • Coccidiosis / immunology
  • Coccidiosis / prevention & control
  • Coccidiosis / veterinary*
  • Diet / veterinary*
  • Eimeria / immunology*
  • Feces / parasitology
  • Female
  • Gene Expression Regulation / physiology
  • Interferon-gamma / genetics
  • Interferon-gamma / metabolism
  • Interleukin-15 / genetics
  • Interleukin-15 / metabolism
  • Lymphocytes / immunology
  • Male
  • Oocysts
  • Poultry Diseases / immunology
  • Poultry Diseases / prevention & control*
  • Prunus / immunology*
  • Specific Pathogen-Free Organisms
  • Spleen / cytology
  • Weight Gain

Substances

  • Interleukin-15
  • Interferon-gamma