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Category: COMPARATIVE GUT PHYSIOLOGY

Poster Session V

PSV-30 - Effects of high temperature and Clostridium perfringens on the immune function of intestine in growing chickens

Tuesday, July 18, 2023
1:30 PM – 2:45 PM MT
Location: 140 Aztec/110 Galisteo

    Presenting Author(s)

  • Wei Chen

    Institute of Animal Science, Guangdong Academy of Agricultural Sciences
    Guangzhou, Guangdong, China (People's Republic)

    • Author(s)

  • Jl

    Jingdu li

    College of Animal Science and Technology and College of Veterinary Medicine, Huazhong Agricultural University
    Wuhan, Hubei, China (People's Republic)

  • ZQ

    Zhili Qi

    College of Animal Science and Technology and College of Veterinary Medicine, Huazhong Agricultural University
    Wuhan, Hubei, China (People's Republic)

  • MZ

    Minmin Zhou

    Institute of Animal Science, Guangdong Academy of Agricultural Sciences
    Guangzhou, Guangdong, China (People's Republic)

  • DR

    Dong Ruan

    Institute of Animal Science, Guangdong Academy of Agricultural Sciences
    Guangzhou, Guangdong, China (People's Republic)

  • YZ

    Yanan Zhang

    Institute of Animal Science, Guangdong Academy of Agricultural Sciences
    Guangzhou, Guangdong, China (People's Republic)

  • WX

    Weiguang Xia

    Institute of Animal Science, Guangdong Academy of Agricultural Sciences
    Guangzhou, Guangdong, China (People's Republic)

  • SW

    Shuang Wang

    Institute of Animal Science, Guangdong Academy of Agricultural Sciences
    Guangzhou, Guangdong, China (People's Republic)

  • CJ

    Chenglong Jin

    Institute of Animal Science, Guangdong Academy of Agricultural Sciences
    Guangzhou, Guangdong, China (People's Republic)

  • XH

    Xuebing Huang

    Institute of Animal Science, Guangdong Academy of Agricultural Sciences
    Guangzhou, Guangdong, China (People's Republic)

  • KL

    Kaichao Li

    Institute of Animal Science, Guangdong Academy of Agricultural Sciences
    Guangzhou, Guangdong, China (People's Republic)

  • KA

    Khaled F. M. Abouelezz

    Institute of Animal Science, Guangdong Academy of Agricultural Sciences
    Guangzhou, Guangdong, China (People's Republic)

  • CZ

    Chuntian Zheng

    Institute of Animal Science, Guangdong Academy of Agricultural Sciences
    Guangzhou, Guangdong, China (People's Republic)

Abstract: The objective of this study was to explore the effects of high ambient temperature (HT) on intestinal immunity of chickens infected with Clostridium perfringens (CP). One hundred and ninety-two Cobb chickens of 21 days’ age were selected, weighed, and allocated into two treatments of 10 replicates each. The pair-fed chickens (25°C for 24 h/d) were fed the same amount of feed that exposed to high ambient temperature (35 oC for 10 h/d). On day 11 (aged 32 d), the pair-fed and HT-treated chickens were orally infected with types A CP (1×108 cfu/per chicken per day) once a day for consecutive 4 days. On day 16 (37 d), birds were fasting overnight and weighted individually. Two birds were randomly selected from each replicate for blood sampling, 10 mL of blood was collected from the wing vein of chickens into vacuum blood collection tubes containing an anticoagulant, plasma were isolated by centrifuging and then stored at -80oC. After blood sampling, chickens were killed and one-cm intestinal section were taken from the middle part of jejunum and kept in 4% polyformaldehyde, samples were then subjected to paraffin-embedding, sectioning, and H&E staining. Jejunal mucus were sampled for gene mRNA expression analysis via RT-PCR. Whole jejunum tissue were sampled and lymphocytes were isolated by isolation kit, and quantified by flow cytometry. Plasma pro- and anti-inflammatory factor were analyzed using ELISA kit. The results showed that either HT or CP had no effects on body weight, daily gain or feed conversion ratio in growing chickens. The CP infection caused marked reduction in the villus length and ratio of villus length/crypt depth, whereas there were no significant effects of HT on intestinal morphology. HT increased mRNA expression of IL-2, NLRP-3, ZO-1 and Claudin-1 in the jejunal mucus, while no effects of CP were observed, but there were interactive effects of HT and CP on mucus mRNA expression of IL-2 and NLRP-3. HT decreased numbers of CD3+, CD4+, CD8+, CD3+4+, CD3+8+, CD4+8+, and CD45+ T cells in jejunum (P < 0.05), while no effects of CP on these indices were observed (P > 0.05). Chickens subjected to HT had higher plasma concentration of IL-1β, IL-22 and IFN-γ than normal temperature (P < 0.05). Both HT and CP decreased the total Otus, Shannon index, Chao index and Simpson index of cecal microbiota (P < 0.05). The results of present study indicate that HT exposure to chickens caused pro-inflammatory reaction in intestinal mucus and suppressed immune reaction of intestinal T cells. Both HT exposure and CP infection adversely affected the cecal microbiota, as reflected by reducing the diversity and abundance.