Impact of feeding n-3 fatty acids to layer breeders and their offspring on concentration of antibody titres against infectious bronchitis, and Newcastle diseases and plasma fatty acids in the offspring

ABSTRACT

1. The impact of feeding sources of n-3 fatty acids (FA) to ISA Brown and Shaver White breeders and their offspring on antibody titres and plasma FA profile was examined.

2. Breeders were fed either a control diet (CON); CON + 1% microalgae (DMA: Aurantiochytrium limacinum) as a source of docosahexaenoic acid; or CON + 2.6% of a co-extruded mixture of full-fat flaxseed (FFF) as a source of α-linolenic acid. Day-old female offspring were assigned to diets (breeder-offspring): 1) CON-CON, 2) CON-DMA, 3) CON – FFF, 4) DMA – CON, 5) DMA – DMA, 6) FFF – CON or 7) FFF – FFF, followed by a standard layer diet through 18 weeks of age (WOA) to 42 WOA.

3. Antibody titres against infectious bronchitis (IBV) and Newcastle disease (NDV) were measured at six days and six WOA, and plasma FA profile was measured at 18 and 42 WOA.

4. Pullets from FFF-fed breeders had higher antibody titres against IBV and NDV than pullets fed DMA (P < 0.05). Feeding FFF to offspring increased plasma ∑n-3 FA at 18 and 42 WOA, whereas feeding DMA to offspring reduced ∑n-6 FA at 18 WOA.

5. In conclusion, independent of breeder strain, alpha linoleic acid (ALA) and DHA sources showed varied responses. Feeding breeders FFF increased plasma concentration of antibody titres and n-3 FA whereas DMA reduced plasma concentration of ∑n-6 FA.

KEYWORDS:

• Layer breeders
• docosahexaenoic acid
• α-linolenic acid
• antibody production
• immunocompetence

Acknowledgments

The authors appreciate the assistance of members of the Monogastric Laboratory at the University of Guelph, (ON) for assistance in animal care and Lyn M. Hillyer for fatty acid analyses. R. Akbari Moghaddam Kakhki is a recipient of the Ontario Trillium Doctoral, Mary Edmunds Williams, King Cole Ducks Ltd, and Craig Hunter Poultry Science Graduate Scholarships. Hendrix Genetics donated the parent flocks.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded by the Ontario Agri-Food Innovation Alliance (#27320), National Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada-CRD Program (4012329), Egg Farmers of Canada (#053529), Egg Farmers of Ontario (#053445), Alltech Canada (#053530), and O & T Farms (#053057).