Comparison of different dietary sources of n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids on immune response in broiler chickens

Al-Khalaifah, H., Al-Nasser, A., Givens, D. I., Rymer, C. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3535-4330 and Yaqoob, P. (2020) Comparison of different dietary sources of n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids on immune response in broiler chickens. Heliyon, 6 (1). e03326. ISSN 24058440 doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2020.e03326

Abstract/Summary

The study aims to research the effects of varied dietary sources of n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) on the immune response in broiler chickens with stress on natural killer (NK) cell activity. Diets supplemented with one of the four sources of n-3 PUFA: linseed oil-, echium oil-, fish oil (FO) or algal biomass-enriched diets at levels of 18, 18, 50 and 15 g/kg fresh weight, were provided for one-d-old male Ross 308 broilers, totaling 340 in number, until they were slaughtered. The analyses included total lipid profile using gas chromatography (GC) for plasma, spleen, thymus, and blood. Additionally, NK cell activity and cell proliferation were investigated for thymocytes and splenocytes. The results indicated that the source of n-3 PUFA had a strong influence on fatty acid composition across all tissues. NK activity was highest in splenocytes and PBMCs from broilers fed linseed oil, followed by those fed algal biomass or echium oil, and lowest for those from broilers fed FO. The proliferative response of lymphocytes from algal biomass-fed chickens tended to be the highest, followed by those fed linseed oil in most cases. Lymphocytes from chickens fed fish oil showed the lowest proliferative response. These results could mean that a docosahexaenoic acid (DHA)-rich algal product might enrich chicken meat with n-3 PUFA without significant damaging effects on chicken immunity.

Item Type	Article
URI	https://reading-clone.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/88879
Identification Number/DOI	10.1016/j.heliyon.2020.e03326
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	Life Sciences > School of Agriculture, Policy and Development > Department of Agri-Food Economics & Marketing > Agricultural and Food Investigational Team (AFIT)
Publisher	Elsevier
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