Dietary supplementation of sulfur amino acids improves intestinal immunity to Eimeria in broilers treated with anti-interleukin-10 antibody

Zhouzheng Ren; Jiakun Yan; Rose Whelan; Xujie Liao; Daniel E Bütz; Maria K Arendt; Mark E Cook; Xiaojun Yang; Thomas D Crenshaw

doi:10.1016/j.aninu.2022.06.008

Dietary supplementation of sulfur amino acids improves intestinal immunity to Eimeria in broilers treated with anti-interleukin-10 antibody

Anim Nutr. 2022 Jun 22:10:382-389. doi: 10.1016/j.aninu.2022.06.008. eCollection 2022 Sep.

Authors

Zhouzheng Ren^{1

2}, Jiakun Yan¹, Rose Whelan³, Xujie Liao¹, Daniel E Bütz², Maria K Arendt², Mark E Cook², Xiaojun Yang¹, Thomas D Crenshaw²

Affiliations

¹ College of Animal Science and Technology, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, Shaanxi, China.
² Department of Animal Sciences, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, USA.
³ Evonik Operations GmbH, Hanau-Wolfgang, Germany.

Abstract

Oral antibody to interleukin-10 (anti-IL-10) enhances the intestinal immune defense against Eimeria. The sulfur amino acids methionine and cysteine (M+C) play essential roles in inducing and maintaining protective immune responses during intestinal infections. Hence, increased dietary M+C may support the anti-IL-10-induced intestinal immunity to Eimeria. Broilers (n = 640) were arranged in a 2 × 2 × 2 factorial design with 2 levels of each of the 3 main factors: dietary standardized ileal digestible (SID) M+C levels (0.6% or 0.8%), dietary anti-IL-10 supplementation (with or without), and coccidiosis challenge (control or challenge). Briefly, the broilers were supplied with either 0.6% or 0.8% SID M+C, each with or without anti-IL-10 (300 μg/kg), from d 10 to 21. On d 14, broilers from each diet were gavaged with either PBS or Eimeria. The resulting Eimeria infection induced fecal oocyst shedding and intestinal lesions. Broilers fed 0.8% SID M+C (main effects, P ≤ 0.05) had decreased feed-to-gain ratio, increased duodenum and cecum luminal anti-Eimeria IgA titers, and decreased fecal oocyst counts, when compared to 0.6% SID M+C. The supplementation of anti-IL-10 (main effects, P ≤ 0.05) increased cecum luminal total IgA concentration and decreased cecum lesions. Interactions (P ≤ 0.05) were detected for growth performance and cecum luminal IFN-γ. Briefly, the highest body weight gain and feed intake were reached in PBS-gavaged broilers fed 0.8% SID M+C with no anti-IL-10 and in Eimeria-challenged broilers fed 0.8% SID M+C with anti-IL-10. In Eimeria-infected broilers, anti-IL-10 increased intestinal luminal IFN-γ and body weight gain only at 0.8% SID M+C. Collectively, anti-IL-10 increased intestinal luminal IFN-γ levels, decreased cecum lesions and restored growth only when fed with adequate amounts of sulfur amino acids. Our findings underscore the importance of providing sufficient essential nutrients to support the anti-IL-10 induced immunity against coccidiosis.

Keywords: Chicken; Coccidiosis; Egg yolk antibody; Interleukin-10; Sulfur amino acid.