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ARS Home » Northeast Area » Beltsville, Maryland (BARC) » Beltsville Agricultural Research Center » Animal Biosciences & Biotechnology Laboratory » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #299492
Title: Immune effects of dietary anathole on Eimeria acervulina infection

Author
item KIM, DUK - US Department Of Agriculture (USDA)
item LILLEHOJ, HYUN - US Department Of Agriculture (USDA)
item LEE, SUNG - US Department Of Agriculture (USDA)
item JANG, SEUNG - US Department Of Agriculture (USDA)
item PARK, MYEONG - US Department Of Agriculture (USDA)
item MIN, WONGI - Gyeongsang National University
item LILLEHOJ, ERIK - University Of Maryland
item BARVO, DAID - Pancosma Sa

Submitted to: World's Poultry Science Journal
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 5/28/2013
Publication Date: 10/1/2013
Publication URL: https://handle.nal.usda.gov/10113/62601
Citation: Kim, D.K., Lillehoj, H.S., Lee, S.H., Jang, S.I., Park, M.S., Min, W., Lillehoj, E.P., Barvo, D. 2013. Immune effects of dietary anathole on Eimeria acervulina infection. World's Poultry Science Journal. 92(10):2625-2634.

Interpretive Summary: Several different species of microscopic intestinal organizm called Eimeria infect the intestine causing the disease coccidiosis. This infection induces detrimental effects on nutrient absorption and growth rate of young chickens and is the cause of major economic loss for poultry industry. While in-feed drugs that are used to treat coccidiosis have been traditionally used by the poultry industry to mitigate some of the negative effects of coccidiosis, the emergence of drug-resistant parasites and increasing legislative restrictions on the use of antibiotics encourage the development of alternative disease control strategies to control enteric infections including coccidiosis. In this paper, ARS scientists collaborated with a private company to explore the use of natural dietary herbs to regulate host innate immune system and improve overall gut health. More specifically, a plant-derived chemical, Anethole, was used to ameliorate the ill effects of coccidiosis in poultry. This study showed that feeding of Anethole-supplemented diet to newly hatched chickens which were undergoing coccidiosis infection significantly enhanced innate immunity, decreased intestinal lesion, and reduced negative consequence of coccidiosis. Furthermore, in vitro studies showed that Anethole-treatment of an invasive stage of parasite reduced parasite infectivity. These new findings document beneficial immunologic effects that this essential oil exerts on growing young chickens and suggest a novel antibiotic-alternative way to grow healthy chickens without antibiotics for poultry industry.

Technical Abstract: Anethole is an aromatic, unsaturated ether that occurs as a major component of the essential oils of anise (Pimpinella anisum) and has shown antimicrobial properties in mammals. These broad spectrum pharmacologic activities suggest that anethole may also protect avian hosts against infectious diseases. Therefore, the The effects of anethole on in vitro and in vivo parameters of chicken immunity during experimental avian coccidiosis were evaluated. Anethole reduced the viability of invasive Eimeria acervulina sporozoites after 2 or 4 hr of treatment in vitro by 45% and 42% respectively, and stimulated 6.0-fold greater chicken spleen cell proliferation compared with controls. Broiler chickens continuously fed from hatch with an anethole-supplemented diet and orally challenged with live E. acervulina oocysts showed enhanced body weight gain, decreased fecal oocyst excretion, and greater E. acervulina profilin antibody responses compared with infected chickens given an unsupplemented standard diet. The levels of transcripts encoding the immune mediators IL-6, IL-8, IL-10, and TNFSF15 in intestinal lymphocytes were increased in E. acervulina-infected chickens fed the anethole-containing diet compared with untreated controls. Global gene expression analysis by microarray hybridisation identified 1,810 transcripts (677 upregulated, 1,133 downregulated) whose levels were significantly altered in intestinal lymphocytes of anethole-fed birds compared with unsupplemented controls. From this transcriptome, 576 corresponding genes were identified. The most significant biological function associated with these genes was inflammatory response. This new information documents the immunologic and genomic changes that occur in chickens following anethole dietary supplementation that may be relevant to host protective immune response to avian coccidiosis.