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ARS Home » Plains Area » College Station, Texas » Southern Plains Agricultural Research Center » Food and Feed Safety Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #371503
Research Project: Identification of the Ecological Niches and Development of Intervention Strategies to Reduce Pathogenic Foodborne Pathogens in Poultry

Location: Food and Feed Safety Research

Title: Dietary factors as triggers of low-grade chronic intestinal inflammation in poultry

Author
item DAL PONT, GABRIELA - Texas A&M Agrilife
item FARNELL, MORGAN - Texas A&M Agrilife
item FARNELL, YUHUA - Texas A&M Agrilife
item Kogut, Michael - Mike

Submitted to: Microorganisms
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 1/15/2020
Publication Date: 1/19/2020
Citation: Dal Pont, G.C., Farnell, M., Farnell, Y., Kogut, M.H. 2020. Dietary factors as triggers of low-grade chronic intestinal inflammation in poultry. Microorganisms. 8(1). Article 139. https://doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms8010139.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms8010139

Interpretive Summary: Throughout their lives, chicks are provided feed containing ingredients that are difficult for the chick’s bodies to digest. Some of these ingredients are able to stimulate the immune system in the chick’s gut. Instead of protecting the chick from infections, this immune stimulation causes the gut to use energy needed by the chick to grow. By doing this, the chick does not grow like normal and, therefore, uses more feed and takes more time to reach market age. This costs the farmer more to grow the chicken and, ultimately, the consumer has to pay more for chicken in the grocery store. By improving the quality of the ingredients in chicken feed and trying to reduce the amount of ingredients that are not easily digestible, it is possible to improve the health and food quality of chicken meat available to the consumer.

Technical Abstract: Inflammation is the reaction of the immune system to an injury, aimed at recovering and repairing damaged tissue. The inflammatory response can be beneficial to the animal; if well regulated, it will reestablish tissue homeostasis. However, if not regulated, it might lead to a misruled response and posterior loss of tissue function. The intestine is constantly exposed to a number of triggers that can stimulate inflammation and may lead to decreased digestibility, diseases, and a reduction of performance. Triggers on diet, such as anti-nutritional compounds, oxidized lipids, mycotoxins, excess of soluble fiber or protein, may induce a low-grade inflammatory response on the intestine of broilers for weeks, resulting in chronic inflammation. We hypothesize that this intestinal chronic inflammation is a key aspect of the lower performance and higher incidence of intestinal problems observed in the non-antibiotic growth promoter (Non-AGP) and free antibiotic poultry production. Therefore, this review explores chronic inflammation in poultry, the constituents of the diet that might trigger it, and the possible effects of chronic intestinal inflammation on the poultry industry.