Abstract
Chronic heat stress is considered to decrease the immune functions which makes negative effect on broiler growth performance. Here, we investigated the relationship between chronic heat stress, growth performance, and immunity in the small intestine of broilers. The study included two groups (control and heat stressed group) with eight replications per group. Ten broilers of 20-day aged were allocated in each replication. On day 35, the treatment group was subdivided into two groups based on their body weights (heavy and low body weight). Although, there was only the control and treatment group on day 28. The growth performance decreased and expression of heat shock protein 70 (HSP70), HSP60, and HSP47 increased on days 28 and 35 in the chronic heat stress group as compared with those in the control group. The expression levels of HSPs were significantly higher in the low body weight group than in the control group. The genes HSP70 and HSP60 were significantly associated with pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines in the small intestine of the broilers of the treatment group. Thus, HSP70 and HSP60 activated the adaptive immunity in the small intestines of the broilers from the treatment group to allow adaptation to chronic heat stress environment.
Highlights
Chronic heat stress is considered to decrease the immune functions which makes negative effect on broiler growth performance
The weight gain reported for the treatment group was significantly (p < 0.01) lower than that observed for the Ctrl group at 21–28 and 28–35 days; no significant difference in weight gain was observed between the two stress time points (21–28 days and 28–35 days)
We found a significant association between heat shock protein 70 (HSP70) and tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α in heavy body weight (HW) and light body weight (LW) groups on day 35
Summary
Chronic heat stress is considered to decrease the immune functions which makes negative effect on broiler growth performance. We investigated the relationship between chronic heat stress, growth performance, and immunity in the small intestine of broilers. The growth performance decreased and expression of heat shock protein 70 (HSP70), HSP60, and HSP47 increased on days 28 and 35 in the chronic heat stress group as compared with those in the control group. The genes HSP70 and HSP60 were significantly associated with pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines in the small intestine of the broilers of the treatment group. Heat stress even alters the appearance of the small intestine[9] as well as negatively impacts on the immune system[10] by triggering the expression of heat shock proteins (HSPs), and, thereby leading to reduce energy metabolism[11] and suppress broiler growth performance. IL-10 inhibits TNF-α expression in inflamed organs to facilitate the development of adaptive immunity in h umans[35,36]
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