Effect of Chito-oligosaccharide Supplementation on Immunity in Broiler Chickens

This study was conducted to determine the effects of dietary supplementation of either 100 mg/kg chitooligosaccharide (COS) or chlortetracycline (CTC) with corn-soybean-fish meal on immunity in broiler chickens. A total of 147 one-day old male broiler chicks were randomly allocated to 3 treatments with 7 replicate pens per treatment and 7 birds per pen. The experimental diets consisted of a control diet based on corn, soybean and fish meal without COS and any antibiotic supplement and similar diets supplemented with either CTC (80 mg/kg from d 1 to 21 and 50 mg/kg from d 22 to 42) or COS (100 mg/kg from d 1 to 42). During the entire experimental period, all birds had ad libitum access to diets and water. The main immune organ indices, T-lymphocyte proliferation, serum cytokine concentrations, serum NO level and serum iNOS activity were measured on d 21 and d 42. On d 21, broilers fed 100 mg/kg COS had improved (p<0.01) indices of spleen, thymus, and bursa of Fabricius compared with the control and CTC birds. Birds receiving 100 mg/kg COS had higher (p<0.05) serum concentrations of IL-1 beta, IL-6, IgM, NO and iNOS than birds on the control treatment. Serum Ca2+ level of birds fed 100 mg/kg COS tended to be higher (p = 0.049) than in birds fed CTC. On d 42, the birds fed 100 mg/kg COS had higher (p<0.05) concentrations of TNF-alpha and IgM in serum than birds in both the CTC and control treatments. Birds fed 100 mg/kg COS had a higher concentration of IFN-gamma than the control group. In conclusion, dietary supplementation of COS appeared to improve the immunity of broilers by promoting the weight of the main immune organs, increasing IgM secretion, stimulating microphages to release TNF-alpha, IL-1 beta, IL-6 and IFN-gamma, and activating iNOS to induce NO.