Chapters authored
Secretory Defense Response in the Bird’s Gastro-Intestinal Tract and Nutritional Strategies to Modulate It
The Gastrointestinal tract (GIT) is a very complex environment which converges a lot of players including nutrients, microorganisms, pathogens, cells, and peptides which determine the type of outcome against threats affecting feed efficiency and body weight gain. Traditionally, GIT is examined as a selective barrier which permit or deny the entrance of molecules, but beyond of that, it is a crucial place to produce important proteins for the host which, at least in part, determine the outcome for a threat such as microorganisms, toxins, anti-nutritional factors, among others. During the non-antibiotic promotants time, there is a necessity to understand how this system works and how we can modulate through nutrition, in part to take advantage of this, and support a better immune response and nutrient absorption in challenged poultry environments. The goal of this chapter is to review the different mechanism of immunity in the GIT emphasizing on secretory defense response and the nutritional strategies including fiber and fatty acids to improve it.
Part of the book: Advances in Poultry Nutrition Research
Nutrition and Poultry Coccidiosis: Causes, Consequences and Current Strategies to Modulate the Disease
Eimeria spp. are parasites specialized in invade and replicate in the intestine, causing coccidiosis, an enteric disease of major economic importance worldwide. The disease causes losses in production and high morbidity ranging from bloody enteritis, with high mortality, to being subclinical silent but affecting feed intake and efficiency. However, intestinal lesions of the infection vary, depending on the species of coccidia. The most important Eimeria species in poultry are: E. tenella, E. acervulina, E. maxima, E. necatrix, E. mitis, E. praecox and E. brunetti. All those species affect different anatomic sites of the intestine. Thus, they alter the homeostasis of the host reducing nutrient absorption and utilization. Nutritional factors are key players in several steps of the coccidiosis disease. Firstly, as a susceptibility or protection factor, secondly, during the process of infection and pathogenesis, and thirdly, in the recovery and compensatory growth of the bird. Otherwise, coccidiosis also triggers immune response in the intestine. To counter these complicated effects, there are nutritional strategies (including formulation of key amino acids, vitamins, short and medium chain fatty acids, prebiotics, enzymes, among others) that can be utilized to reduce the infection, alleviate the signs, and boost the compensatory growth after infection. This chapter review the impacts of coccidiosis in nutrition and discuss about of strategies to mitigate these risks.
Part of the book: Advances in Poultry Nutrition Research