Paper Details

Immune tissue development in pathogen challenged broiler chicks fed diet supplemented with probiotic (Bacillus subtilis)

Mehdi Ghaderi-Joybari, Ali Asghar Sadeghi, Gholamreza Salehi-Jouzani, Mohammad Chamani, Mehdi Aminafshar

DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.12692/ijb/5.12.197-203

Int. J. Biosci. 5(12), 197-203. December, 2014. (PDF)

Abstract:

In the present study, an experiment was conducted to evaluate the effects of a commercial probiotic (Bacillus subtilis) on immune tissue development in Salmonella challenged broiler chicks. One hundred and sixty 1-d-old broiler chicks were randomly assigned to four treatments at a completely randomized design. The treatments were control group, probiotic (200 g per ton of diet) treated group, challenged group (1.0 × 105 cfu/chick at day 7 of age) and challenged probiotic treated group. There were differences among the weights of spleen or bursa at days 21 and 42 of age. Salmonella challenging resulted in tissue degeneration and depletion of spleen and bursa from lymphoid. Inclusion of probiotic to diet of challenged chicks ameliorated the negative effects of Salmonella challenging on tissue structure. Salmonella challenging decreased (P < 0.05) the weights of spleen and bursa by 6 and 27% compared to those of control group, respectively. Inclusion of probiotic to diet of these chicks increased (P < 0.05) the weight of spleen and bursa by 4 and 20%, respectively. The results showed that Salmonella  challenging had negative effects on immune organ weight and tissue structure and probiotic supplementation could improve immune organ development of infected chicks.