Skip to main content
ARS Home » Northeast Area » Beltsville, Maryland (BARC) » Beltsville Agricultural Research Center » Animal Biosciences & Biotechnology Laboratory » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #367367
Research Project: Non-antibiotic Strategies to Control Enteric Diseases of Poultry

Location: Animal Biosciences & Biotechnology Laboratory

Title: "Novel hyperimmune egg yolk IgY antibodies developed against protective antigens of Eimeria sp and Clostridium perfringens protect against coccidiosis and necrotic enteritis"

Author
item Lillehoj, Hyun
item PORTA, E.W. - Arkion Life Sciences
item GADDE, U.D. - US Department Of Agriculture (USDA)
item Gay, Cyril

Submitted to: Meeting Abstract
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 9/1/2019
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Passive immunization with pathogen-specific egg yolk antibodies (IgY) is emerging as a potential alternative to antibiotics for the treatment and prevention of various human and animal diseases. The use of IgY offers several advantages in that laying hens are an excellent source of high-quality polyclonal antibodies, which can be collected noninvasively from egg yolks. With the increase in regulations on the use of antibiotic growth promoters and rise in consumer demand for poultry products from 'Antibiotic Free' or 'No Antibiotics Ever' flocks, the quest for alternative approaches intensified in the recent years. Successful strategies developed as antibiotic alternatives should be both safe for humans and animals, be easily administered, economically feasible and have significant beneficial impact on health and performance. In this report, we describe successful application of egg yolk IgY antibodies to prevent and treat coccidiosis and necrotic enteritis (NE), two most important enteric diseases of poultry which cost industry more than $ 10 million. A series of experiments were conducted to investigate whether passive immunization with oral supplementation of these egg yolk powders as source of Eimeria- and Clostridium perfringens (CP)-specific antibodies would have any protective effect upon coccidiosis and NE infection in broiler chickens. Four antigens selected from Eimeria and CP were proven to be the best therapeutic antibodies in newly hatched broiler chickens when using avian coccidiosis and NE disease challenge models developed at ARS. This is the first report that shows the effectiveness of Eimeria- and Clostridium-specific egg yolk IgY antibodies against the prevention and treatment of coccidiosis and NE.