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ARS Home » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #225002
Title: IMMUNOSTIMULATORY PROPERTIES OF DIETARY PLUM (PRUNUS SALICINA LINDL.) ON COCCIDIOSIS

Author
item LEE, SUNG-HYUN - VISITING SCIENTIST, KOREA
item Lillehoj, Hyun
item PARK, DONG-WOON - VISITING SCIENTIST, KOREA
item JANG, SEUNG-IK - VISITING SCIENTIST, KOREA

Submitted to: BARC Poster Day
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 3/24/2008
Publication Date: 4/23/2008
Citation: Lee, S., Lillehoj, H.S., Hong, Y.H., Park, D., Jang, S. 2008. Immunostimulatory properties of dietary plum (prunus salicina lindl.) on coccidiosis. BARC Poster Day. Beltsville, Md. P 26.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: The fruit of the plum tree (Prunus salicina Lindl.) has been used as a traditional medicinal food in humans to enhance immunity against infectious agents and to treat cancers. However, limited information exists on the mechanisms responsible for its immune enhancing properties. In this study, the immunostimulatory effects of a methanol extract of plum fruit following methanol evaporation and dissolving in PBS were assessed by in vitro lymphocyte proliferation, tumor cell cytotoxicity, and nitric oxide (NO) production. The crude methanol extract stimulated spleen lymphocyte proliferation and NO production by cultured macrophages, and inhibited the viability of tumor cells, significantly greater than media controls. In the basis of these results, 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 caused by several distinct species of Eimeria affecting poultry industry greater than $1.2 billion annual economic loss worldwide. There is a great interest to develop an alternative control strategy against coccidiosis in view of increasing incidence of drug resistance of field strains of Eimeria. 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 5,000 sporulated oocysts of Eimeria acervulina at day 12 post-hatch, while control animals were uninfected. Dietary supplementation of P significantly increased body weight gain, reduced fecal oocyst shedding, and increased the levels of mRNAs for interferon-' 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. Supplementation of chicken diets with plum may improve the quality of chicken as an organic livestock as well as good health care and wellbeing for chickens. Supported by USDA ARS CRIS Project No. 1265-31320-072-00D.