Probiotics as therapeutic, antioxidant and immunomodulatory agents against poultry coccidiosis

SUMMARY

Avian coccidiosis is an important parasitic disease of birds, caused by genus Eimeria, and having great economic importance. The estimated global economic loss due to coccidiosis is up to US$3 billion annually. Approximately 80% of these losses are associated with performance parameters, including decreased weight gain, heavy mortality, poor feed conversion ratio and the remaining 20% of losses include the cost of prophylaxis and treatment measures. This disease has been controlled by different anticoccidial agents, but synthetic drug-resistance is the major issue due to which researchers are trying to develop modern alternate effective approaches. Moreover, drug residues cause health hazard issues for poultry product consumers, which have led to the cessation of such practices in developed countries. Control through vaccination can be considered as a good practice, but due to the high cost and complexity of Eimeria species, development of a cost-effective vaccine has proved challenging. Among other options, probiotics have shown favourable effects against coccidiosis. Use of probiotics can reduce 70–80% of losses faced by the poultry industry worldwide. They have shown excellent results due to their antioxidant, immunostimulatory and positive effects on intestinal health of infected birds. Furthermore, details about the expression of the host biological responses against poultry coccidiosis and how probiotic supplementation assists in improving these responses in chickens are described in this review.

KEYWORDS:

• Probiotics
• Eimeria
• poultry
• health
• immunomodulation

Acknowledgements

I acknowledge this paper to Prof. Ziping Zhang. This article was funded by the National Nature Science Foundation of China (31672681, 31872466), Project of Fujian Science and Technology Department (Grant No:2019N005) and Fujian Modern Poultry Industry Technical System Construction Project (2019-2022).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Muhammad Mohsin

Muhammad Mohsin is currently working as Ph.D. Scholar at College of Life Science and College of Animal Sciences (College of Bee Science), Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou, Fujian Province, China. He has Expertise in Molecular Parasitology and Public Health.

Rao Zahid Abbas

Rao Zahid Abbas is currently working as Associate Professor at Department of Parasitology University of Agriculture Faisalabad. He has expertise in Parasitology.

Guangwen Yin

Guangwen Yin is currently working as Associate Professor at Engineering Laboratory of Animal Pharmaceuticals and College of Animal Sciences (College of Bee Science), Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou, Fujian Province, China and has expertise on Animal Parasitology.

Zia-Ud-Din Sindhu

Zia-ud-Din Sindhu is Working as Associate Professor at Department of Parasitology University of Agriculture Faisalabad. He has Expertise in Epidemiology.

Asghar Abbas

Asghar Abbas is Working as Assistant Professor Department of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Muhammad Nawaz Shareed University of Agriculture Faisalabad. He has Expertise in Veterinary Parasitology.

Zhijian Huang

Zhijian Huang is working as Professor at Engineering Laboratory of Animal Pharmaceuticals and College of Animal Sciences (College of Bee Science), Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou, Fujian Province, China. He has Expertise in Preventive Veterinary Medicine.

Muhammad Tahir Aleem

Muhammad Tahir Aleem is Working as PhD Scholar at MOE Joint International Research Laboratory of Animal Health and Food Safety, College of Veterinary Medicine, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing Jiangsu, China. He has Expertise in Parasitology and Immunology.

Zohaib Saeed

Zohaib Saeed is working as Ph.D. Scholar at Department of Parasitology, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Pakistan. He has Expertise in Veterinary Protozoology.

Muhammad Zeeshan Afzal

Muhammad Zeeshan Afzal is working as postgradute student at Department of Pathology, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Pakistan. He has expertise in Pathology.

Adil Ejaz

Adil Ejaz is working as Scholar at University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Pakistan. He has expertise in Poultry Pathology.

Muhammad Shoaib

Muhammmd Shoaib is working as Ph.D Scholar at Institute of Microbiology, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Pakistan and has expertise in Microbiology.