Read the
magazine
story to find out more. |
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ARS researchers have found that feeding
supplements such as ground green tea and probiotics to chickens can boost their
immune systems and reduce the spread of infection. Click the image for more
information about it. |
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Food Supplements that Fortify Fowl
By Ann Perry
May 1, 2009
Poultry infected with the parasite Eimeria maxima usually
develop avian coccidiosis, a disease estimated to cost producers globally more
than $1.2 billion every year. So Agricultural
Research Service (ARS) immunologist
Hyun
Lillehoj has been working with colleagues in ARS and around the world to
find dietary supplements that strengthen the poultry immune system.
Lillehoj, at the ARS
Animal
Parasitic Diseases Laboratory in Beltsville, Md., cooperated on the
research with scientists at South Korea's
Gyeongsang National
University
College
of Veterinary Medicine.
The researchers found that chickens that consumed ground green tea for
two weeks prior to parasitic infection produced significantly fewer fecal E.
maxima oocysts than the control group. This finding could help reduce the
spread of infection in poultry houses.
Working with ARS visiting molecular biologist Sung-Hyen Lee and
Imagilin Technology LLC, in Frederick,
Md., Lillehoj evaluated the effects of adding commercial probiotics to poultry
diets. Probiotics are health-promoting dietary supplements derived from live
bacteria or yeasts.
Chickens eating diets supplemented with Pediococcus-based
probiotics reduced their oocyte production, increased the production of
cytokines essential for a strong immune response, and experienced improved
weight gain.
Poultry immunities got a similar boost from a combination of
Pediococcus and a yeast-based commercial probiotic product. Chickens
that consumed a probiotic combination of lactic acid bacterium and yeasts also
showed a significant antibody response to parasites.
Lillehoj, Lee, and other colleagues from South Korea collaborated with
scientists at the
Rural
Development AdministrationSouth Korea's national agricultural
research organizationto see if other phytonutrients might also be
beneficial. They found that plum powder supplements stimulated spleen immune
cell production and killed tumor cells. Infected poultry fed with the
supplement also gained weight and reduced parasite shedding. Supplements of
safflower, which have been used by traditional Chinese practitioners for
thousands of years, were found to be similarly beneficial.
Read
more about this research in the May/June 2009 issue of Agricultural
Research magazine.
ARS is the principal intramural scientific research agency of the
U.S. Department of Agriculture.