Vitagene Regulation as a New Strategy to Fight Stresses in Poultry Production

Abstract

A b s t r a c tCommercial poultry production is associated with various stresses leading to decrease of productive and reproductive performance of growing chickens, parent birds and layers. In commercial poultry/animal production, there are four major types of stress: technological, environmental, nutritional and internal stresses. A growing body of evidence indicates that most of the stresses in poultry production at the cellular level are associated with oxidative stress due to excess of free radical production or inadequate antioxidant protection. The vitagene concept of fighting stresses emerged as a new direction in a nutritional research and it was successfully transferred from medical sciences to agricultural sciences, including poultry and pig production. In fact, vitagene regulation by nutritional means appeared as a new approach to realise a full potential of the body for adaptation to stress conditions in poultry/animal production. Therefore, the aim of the study was to test if supplementation of the vitagene-regulating antioxidant mixture (Magic Antistress Mix/PerforMax) with drinking water can improve broiler performance in stressful conditions of commercial chicken production. The experiment was conducted at the poultry farm AO «Prodo Tumenskiy Broiler» (Tumen region, Russia) in a special poultry house designed and equipped for conducting experimental trials and measuring growth parameters weekly. Twelve thousand and four hundred newly hatched Arbor Acres chicks were divided into two equal groups with four replicates in each group and placed in poultry house. The results confirmed the idea that using vitagene-regulating mixture with drinking water can improve chicken performance, including improvement in FCR (1.50 vs 1.56 in control) and vaccination efficacy, as shown by increased vaccination index by 40 %).Commercial poultry production is associated with various stresses leading to decrease of productive and reproductive performance of growing chickens, parent birds and layers. Indeed, domestication and genetic selection based on rapid growth rates, improved feed conversion, and heavier body weight (BW) of broilers has made domestic birds, including broilers and turkeys, particularly susceptible to oxidative stress [1]. From a physiological point of view, stress is related to a deviation from optimal internal and external conditions. Under stressful conditions, the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, the autonomic nervous system and the immune system are responsible for re-establishing homeostasis. Therefore, a cascade of regulatory mechanisms is involved, resulting in a mobilisation of energy and a shift in metabolism, with detrimental effects on growth

Antioxidant Defence Systems and Oxidative Stress in Poultry Biology: An Update

“…Therefore, the development of vitagene-regulating nutritional supplements is on the agenda of many commercial companies worldwide. One successful example could be a complex mixture of nutrients including carnitine, betaine, vitamins, minerals, organic acids, etc., which are commercially available for poultry [22,105,[304][305][306]. Indeed, prevention of the detrimental consequences of stressors and improved performance in broilers [22,303], broiler breeders and layers [305,306] using vitagene-activation may, based on references in this review, optimize the antioxidant defence system.…”

“…One successful example could be a complex mixture of nutrients including carnitine, betaine, vitamins, minerals, organic acids, etc., which are commercially available for poultry [22,105,[304][305][306]. Indeed, prevention of the detrimental consequences of stressors and improved performance in broilers [22,303], broiler breeders and layers [305,306] using vitagene-activation may, based on references in this review, optimize the antioxidant defence system. It seems likely that the vitagene concept of fighting stress could be used for maintenance/improvement of eggshell health, gut health and liver health of modern poultry in conditions under stress (for a review, see Reference [105]).…”

“…Chick placement [1,[17][18][19][20][21][22] Increased stocking density [23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31] Weighing, grading, group formation, catching, transferring to breeder houses [1,18,19] Prolonged egg storage, egg transportation, inadequate egg storage conditions, incorrect incubation regimes [1,18,19] Environmental stressors…”

Potential crosstalk of oxidative stress and immune response in poultry through phytochemicals — A review

“…It’s interesting to find that both studies found that heat shock protein, one of the members in vitagene family, expression was increased in the liver of quails suffering a high temperature environment. The vitagene family has been regarded as a promising resolving strategy to fight against detrimental effects caused by oxidative imbalance [ 16 , 86 ] In addition to heat shock proteins, thioredoxins (Trx)/thioredoxin reductase (TrxR) system, SOD, and sirtuins are members that preserve homeostasis in cell, to adapt cells in various stress conditions [ 92 ]. Among those candidates for combating NF-κB in Nrf2-regulated pathway, HO-1 is at the core of Nrf2-mediated NF-κB inhibition, and HO-1 is one of the heat shock family members [ 93 ].…”

ЭКСПРЕССИЯ ГЕНОВ ИММУНИТЕТА И АДАПТАЦИИ И СОСТАВ МИКРОБИОМА У РОДИТЕЛЬСКОГО ПОГОЛОВЬЯ КУР И ПЕТУХОВ (Gallus gallus L.) ЛИНИЙ СМ5 И СМ9 КРОССА СМЕНА 9

“…To analyze the expression of mRNA in the liver and bursa, specific primers were selected [25]. As a reference control, primers were used to amplify the housekeeping gene encoding the ACTB beta-actin protein: F -5´-CTGTGCCCATC-TATGAAGGCTA-3´, R -5´-ATTTCTCTCTCGGCTGTGGTG-3´.…”