Vitagenes in poultry production: Part 2. Nutritional and internal stresses

Abstract

Commercial poultry production is associated with various stresses affecting productive and reproductive performance of birds and their health status. Recently the vitagene concept has received substantial attention. In fact, the term vitagenes refers to a group of genes that are responsible for preserving cellular homeostasis in stress conditions. These genes play a crucial role in cell and whole organism adaptation to stress by regulating additional synthesis of stress resistance proteins, including heat shock proteins, thioredoxins, sirtuins and superoxide dismutase. Among four major types of stress, nutritional stresses have a special place, being detrimental for productive and reproductive performances of poultry. In particular, mycotoxins are unavoidable contaminants of poultry feed and at molecular level they cause oxidative stress in the body. Oxidised fat and nutrient imbalances are also detrimental for gut health, immunity, growth and development of chickens. Internal stresses, including peak of egg production and vaccinations are also of great importance for poultry production. Therefore, the development of the effective antioxidant solutions to decrease negative consequences of nutritional and internal stresses is an important task for poultry scientists. One of such approaches is based on the vitagene concept which will be considered in this review.

Keywords::

• poultry
• stresses
• oxidative stress
• vitagenes