Chapters authored
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
From Understanding the Immune Response against Coccidiosis to the Use of Coccidia Vaccines
Avian coccidiosis is the most costly global poultry parasitic disease, which represents a threat to food production and sustainability. Coccidiosis is still ubiquitous even in modern poultry production systems. Protective immunity against coccidia does develop but differs for each Eimeria species and depends on the method of immunization and the immune response (including both early innate immune response by several proteins and professional phagocytes as well as acquired immune response with specialized cells). In addition, GALT is a master tissue in the immune response against coccidiosis because of its crucial functions: acquired immunity in both the cellular and humoral immune responses. Here, we present an extensive review on the immune response against coccidiosis and the use of vaccines as an alternative for consideration in integrated sustained coccidiosis control programs.
Part of the book: Poultry Farming