Effect of butyric acid glycerol esters on ileal and cecal mucosal and luminal microbiota in chickens challenged with Eimeria maxima

Authors: Proszkowiec-Weglarz, Monika; Miska, Kate; Schreier, Lori; GRIM, CHRISTOPHER - Food And Drug Administration(FDA); JARVIS, KAREN - Food And Drug Administration(FDA); Shao, Jonathan; VAESSEN, STEFAN - Perstorp Waspik Bv; SYGALL, RICHARD - Perstorp Waspik Bv; Jenkins, Mark; Kahl, Stanislaw; Russell, Beverly

Submitted to: Poultry Science
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 6/17/2020
Publication Date: 7/3/2020
Publication URL: https://handle.nal.usda.gov/10113/7013367
Citation: Proszkowiec-Wegla, M.K., Miska, K.B., Schreier, L.L., Grim, C.J., Jarvis, K.G., Shao, J.Y., Vaessen, S., Sygall, R., Jenkins, M.C., Kahl, S., Russell, B.A. 2020. Effect of butyric acid glycerol esters on ileal and cecal mucosal and luminal microbiota in chickens challenged with Eimeria maxima. Poultry Science. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psj.2020.06.022.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psj.2020.06.022

Interpretive Summary: Coccidiosis is one of the most prevalent diseases seen in chicken leading to excessive economic losses in poultry industry. This disease is caused by parasite Eimeria and several species of Eimeria are responsible for coccidiosis in poultry. Each of the species has the ability to infect gut epithelial cells that line the inside of the intestine at specific regions of the gastrointestinal tract. The parasites can cause damage to the intestine, and lead to loss of appetite, decrease in weight gain, increase in feed conversion, diarrhea, and sometimes death. The aim of this study was to to-fold: (1) to determine whether butyric acid glycerol esters, potential replacement of antibiotic growth promoters, can attenuate effects of Eimeria infections and (2) to evaluate the effect of Eimeria infection and butyric acid glycerol esters on ileal and cecal microbiota in chickens. This study utilized modern broiler chicken that were fed butyric acid glycerol esters from hatch, and at the age of 21 days were infected with Eimeria maxima, that shows infection specificity to jejunum and ileum. Our results revealed that the addition of butyric acid glycerol esters improved body weight gain and feed conversion ratio at the peak of infection in challenged birds. Diversity of chicken microbiome in ileum and ceca was mostly affected by infection and time post-infection. The presence of butyric acid glycerol esters in the diet had a limited effect on gut microbiota but significantly attenuated the effects of Eimeria infection in broiler chickens, as measured by body weight gain and feed conversion ratio.

Technical Abstract: Coccidiosis is one of the most prevalent diseases seen in the poultry industry leading to excessive economic losses. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of butyric acid glycerol esters (BE) on ileal and cecal microbiota in birds challenged with Eimeria maxima (EM). Ross 708 male broilers were fed diet supplemented with 0 (control, C) or 0.25% BE from day (d) 1. On d 21, half of the birds were infected with 103 EM oocysts. Ileal and cecal contents, and epithelial scrapings were collected at 7 and 10 d post-infection (PI) for microbiota determination. BE addition improved body weight gain and feed conversion ratio at 7 d PI in EM challenged birds. Alpha diversity of bacterial communities was mostly affected by time PI and EM infection. The richness of luminal bacterial populations in ileum and ceca were affected by addition of BE and time PI×EM×BE interaction, respectively. In ileal and cecal luminal and mucosal bacterial communities, PERMANOVA (Unweighted UniFrac) analysis showed significant differences due to time PI and interaction between time PI, EM and BE. Significant differences in taxonomic composition at phylum, class, and family level were observed in microbiota of luminal and mucosal populations of ileum and ceca due to time PI, EM, BE and their interactions. Bacterial community present in the cecal lumen was characterized by the lowest number of differentially present bacteria while cecal mucosal community was characterized by the highest number of differentially abundant bacteria. In conclusion, our results show that EM infection and time PI has the biggest impact on the balance of chicken gut microbiota. The presence of BE in the diet had a limited effect on gut microbiota but significantly attenuated the effects of EM infection, as measured by body weight gain and feed conversion ratio in broiler chickens.