Pretreatment with probiotic Enterococcus faecium NCIMB 11181 ameliorates necrotic enteritis-induced intestinal barrier injury in broiler chickens

Abstract

The dysfunction of tight-junction integrity caused by necrotic enteritis (NE) is associated with decreased nutrient absorption and gut injury in broiler chickens. Although probiotic Enterococcus faecium ( E. faecium ) has been reported to possess immune-regulatory characteristics and can prevent diarrhea in pigs, very little information exists in relation to the specific regulatory impact of E. faecium NCIMB 11181 on NE-induced intestinal barrier injury of broiler chickens. This study was conducted to investigate the protective effects of probiotic E. faecium NCIMB 11181 on NE-induced intestinal barrier injury in broiler chickens. The study also aimed to elucidate the mechanisms that underpin these protective effects. One hundred and eighty Arbor Acres (AA) broiler chicks (one day old) were randomly assigned using a 2 × 2 factorial arrangement into two groups fed different levels of dietary E. faecium NCIMB 11181 (0 or 2 × 10 8 CFU/kg of diet) and two disease-challenge groups (control or NE challenged). The results showed that NE induced body weight loss, intestinal lesions, and histopathological inflammation, as well as intestinal-cell apoptosis. These symptoms were alleviated following the administration of probiotic E. faecium NCIMB 11181. Pretreatment with probiotic E. faecium NCIMB 11181 significantly upregulated the expression of the Claudin-1 gene encoding a tight-junction protein. Claudin-1 and HSP70 protein expression were also increased in the jejunum regardless of NE infection. Furthermore, NE-infected birds fed with E. faecium displayed notable increases in MyD88, NF-κB, iNOS, PI3K, GLP-2, IL-1β, IL-4, and HSP70 mRNA expression. E. faecium NCIMB 11181 administration also significantly improved the animals’ intestinal microbial composition regardless of NE treatment. These findings indicated that addition of E. faecium NCIMB 11181 to poultry feed is effective in mitigating NE-induced gut injury, possibly by strengthening intestinal mucosal barrier function, as well as modulating gut microflora and intestinal mucosal immune responses.

Composition and Function of Chicken Gut Microbiota

“…It can be therefore recommended to shorten the steps leading to caecal or faecal extract preparation, to use such extracts immediately and not to store them for future experiments. Additional insufficiency of previously published chicken microbiota studies is administering probiotics without checking for their presence in the intestinal tract following administration [81][82][83][84][85][86]. Although it is possible that bacteria may trigger some biological processes even without colonisation, there should be a distinction between the biological effect of probiotics and their presence in the gut.…”

Redox Homeostasis in Poultry: Regulatory Roles of NF-κB

“…Interestingly, compared with nonsupplemented groups, probiotic Enterococcus faecium NCIMB 11,181 was shown to ameliorate necrotic enteritis-induced intestinal barrier injury in broiler chickens and increased gene expression levels of TLR2, MyD88, NF-κB, IL-4, iNOS, TGF-β3, PI3K, IGF-2, glucagon-like peptide-2 (GLP-2), and epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR). There was also a significant interactive effect of NE infection and E. faecium treatment on the mRNA expression of various immune-inflammation factors, including NF-κB [ 366 ]. A dendritic cell (DC)-targeted mucosal vaccine using Lactobacillus plantarum as an antigen delivery system against G57 virus infection was developed.…”

Probiotics mitigating subclinical necrotic enteritis (SNE) as potential alternatives to antibiotics in poultry

“…Addition of Enterococcus faecium NCIMB 11181 to poultry feed as a probiotic upregulates the expression of the Claudin-1 gene encoding a tight-junction protein in necrotic enteritis affected chickens. Probiotic also leads to an increase in the expression of MyD88, NF-κB, iNOS, PI3K, GLP-2, IL-1β, IL-4, and HSP70 mRNA (Wu et al 2019). Diets supplemented with Clostridium butyricum YH108 have a positive effect on the gut microbiota, immune response and intestinal barrier function in chickens affected with necrotic enteritis.…”

“…Administration of probiotic Enterococcus faecium NCIMB 1118 significantly alleviated body weight loss, intestinal lesions, histopathological inflammation and intestinal-cell apoptosis in NE challenged birds. Thus, Enterococcus faecium NCIMB 1118 reduced the intestinal barrier injury in broilers having NE (Wu et al 2019). Butyricicoccus pullicaecorum strain 25-3T acts as potential probiotic by reducing the abundance of potentially important pathogens in the caeca and ileum (Eeckhaut et al 2016).…”

“…Outbreaks of necrotic enteritis (NE) usually peaks between 2 and 6 week of age (Hunter et al 2019;Yang et al 2016). Due to the subclinical nature of the disease, there is chronic damage to the intestinal mucosa of the chickens (Wu et al 2019;Zhang et al 2019). This leads to impaired absorption of nutrients, reduced weight gain and decreased overall performance (Antonissen et al 2014;Skinner et al 2010).…”