Methylsulfonylmethane and anti-IL10 antibody: Novel feed additives for supporting poultry health

Abdul Rasheed, Muhammed Shameer

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Description

Title

Methylsulfonylmethane and anti-IL10 antibody: Novel feed additives for supporting poultry health

Author(s)

Abdul Rasheed, Muhammed Shameer

Issue Date

2020-06-29

Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)

Dilger, Ryan N

Doctoral Committee Chair(s)

Dilger, Ryan N

Committee Member(s)

• Parsons, Carl M
• Steelman, Andrew J
• Jarosinski, Keith W

Department of Study

Animal Sciences

Discipline

Animal Sciences

Degree Granting Institution

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Degree Level

Dissertation

Keyword(s)

• feed additive
• broiler
• oxidative stress
• coccidiosis

Abstract

With the restrictions imposed on the use of antibiotics in animal agriculture, it is becoming challenging for producers to maintain health and productivity of poultry raised for human consumption. For that reason, there has been an increased emphasis on evaluating nutritional alternatives to address most commonly encountered health issues such as inflammation associated with various diseases and stress. While coccidiosis, caused by intestinal protozoan parasites of genus Eimeria, has major economic implications, oxidative stress, brought about by a disruptive bodily redox status, is a major mechanism underlying various pathologies in commercial poultry production. Supporting host defense mechanisms to fight these challenges via nutritional technologies is a method of prevention. As such, a series of four experiments were conducted to evaluate the beneficial effects of 2 novel feed additives, methylsulfonylmethane (MSM) and anti-IL10 antibody contained in a dried egg product (DEP), in improving immunity and antioxidant capacity of birds during oxidative stress and coccidiosis. Methylsulfonylmethane is an organic, sulfur-containing compound that has demonstrated anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidant properties in humans, and DEP is proposed to attenuate Eimeria-induced IL10 activity to prevent the parasite from evading the host’s immune reaction. Because there were no data with regard to the toxicological effect of using MSM in poultry, we evaluated the acute and sub-chronic toxicological effects and tissue distribution of MSM following oral gavage in broilers in the first experiment. As indicated by the absence of any serious effect on the hematological and clinical blood chemistry parameters, growth performance, and mortality, it was established that oral MSM at either acute (single dose up to 2,000 mg/kg BW) or sub-chronic (1,500 mg/kg BW daily for 21 days) concentrations did not evoke an adverse response in broilers. Moreover, MSM appeared to be absorbed and widely distributed in tissues throughout the body. In the second experiment, we sought to determine if dietary supplementation of MSM at 0.05% of the diet would demonstrate protective effects during oxidative stress induced by feeding 5% peroxidized oil in the diet. While a successful induction of oxidative stress was indicated by reduced feed intake in birds supplemented with oxidized oil, MSM did not affect growth equally across time-points. Similarly, supplementation of either MSM or oxidized oil alone or in combination did not influence peripheral T cell subsets upon flow cytometry analysis. However, in the presence of oxidized oil, MSM lowered indicators of oxidative stress and improved antioxidant enzyme activity (i.e., glutathione peroxidase and reductase) and total antioxidant capacity in both liver and plasma. Because the antioxidant effect of MSM was inconsistent and varied across time-points, we concluded that 0.05% dietary MSM may partially protect birds from diet-induced oxidative stress. The third experiment was conducted to evaluate the effects of attenuating Eimeria-induced IL10 activity using DEP supplemented at 2 levels (165 or 287 in Study 1 and 143 or 287 U/tonne in Study 2) via feed on growth performance, immune responsivity, and gut health outcomes during a severe challenge infection with either E. acervulina (Study 1) or E. tenella (Study 2). In both studies, a successful Eimeria infection was indicated by a reduced growth performance in infected birds compared with uninfected group whereas, DEP supplementation did not improve overall growth performance, oocyst shedding, histopathological lesions, hematological measurements, or serum chemistry parameters. However, DEP supplementation improved percentage of circulating CD3+ cells following E. tenella infection, indicating an improvement in cellular immunity. To elucidate further, and to determine if attenuation of IL10 has caused an uncontrolled inflammatory reaction as previously indicated by severe histopathological lesions, and if anti-inflammatory MSM may bring a controlled inflammatory process in eliminating Eimeria infection, a final experiment was conducted. As such, the objective was to study the effects of feeding 0.4% MSM and 287 U/tonne DEP on growth performance, immune responsivity, oxidative stress parameters, and gut health outcomes during a mild, repeated infection with mixed species of Eimeria to approximate a subclinical infection in commercial poultry operations. While supplementation with neither MSM nor DEP alone elicited improvements, combined supplementation improved growth performance 7 days post-primary infection compared with infected control. Additionally, the combination of MSM and DEP improved total antioxidant capacity and reduced oxidative stress indicators in the plasma at various time-points. The results indicated beneficial effects of the combined supplementation of MSM and DEP during a mild Eimeria infection on growth performance and oxidative stress outcomes. Overall, this research demonstrates that MSM is safe to be used as a feed additive and has beneficial effects during diet-induced oxidative stress. Further, a combination of MSM and DEP may be helpful in preventing subclinical coccidiosis infection.

Graduation Semester

2020-08

Type of Resource

Thesis

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http://hdl.handle.net/2142/108569

Copyright and License Information

© Muhammed Shameer Abdul Rasheed, 2020

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