Objective Effects of feeding suspensions of chlorella culture with and/or without fermentation to broilers on the immunity of the birds were studied.
Method A total of 480 healthy one-day-old male Liangfeng broilers were randomly divided into 4 groups of 10 replicates with 12 birds in each replicate. The broilers were all fed for 70 d with regular forage provided by Lanzhou Zhengda Co., Ltd. The drinking water provided for the 4 groups included water for control and 3 treatments by addition of 30 mL chlorella suspension (CS), 1 mL fermented chlorella suspension (FCS), or 30 mL combination of the two suspensions (CCS).
Result The treatments significantly increased the thymus index in the broilers (P＜0.05) but no significant effect on the spleen index (P＞0.05). The improvements on the spleen and thymus tissue structures varied. The treatment broilers showed a significantly increased serum IgG (P＜0.05). Compared to control, the inflammation-promoting factors, such as TNF-α, IFN-γ, IL-1β, IL-2, and IL-6 in serum of the broilers were significantly reduced by the treatments (P＜0.05). For the anti-inflammatory functions, CCS significantly increased IL-4 (P＜0.05). Whereas FCS significantly decreased IL-1β and IL-6 (P＜0.05) and significantly increased IL-4 (P＜0.05).
Conclusion The addition of NCS, FCS or CCS in drinking water for the broilers promoted the development of the immunity-related organs of the birds. In addition, significant increases on serum immunoglobulin, inhibition on inflammatory cytokines secretion, and enhancement on anti-inflammatory cytokines production were also found. It appeared that by incorporating the chlorella culture material, with and/or without subsequent fermentation, in the diet feeding broilers the immunity of the flock could be significantly improved.
DownLoad: