Dietary Fat Modulation of Immune Function | Chapter 1 | Emerging Challenges in Agriculture and Food Science Vol. 7

 To increase intakes of these fatty acids, which are currently well below the requirements, there has been considerable interest in enriching poultry meat with long-chain n-3 PUFA. There is some worry, though, that chicken immune and infection resistance may be negatively impacted by diets high in n-3 PUFA.

The goal of this chapter was to examine the impact of dietary fat source and level on the activity of Natural Killer (NK) cells, a marker of immunological function in broiler chickens. Male Cobb 500 broilers that were one day old were fed diets enhanced with fish oil (FO), echium oil, algal biomass, or flaxseed oil at doses of 50, 18, 18, and 19 g/kg, respectively. Twenty birds/treatment had their blood and spleen samples taken at the time of slaughter. The fatty acid content of immunological tissues was significantly influenced by include PUFA in the rations fed to broiler chickens. Investigated was the activity of natural killer (NK) cells. Splenocytes and peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from broilers fed flaxseed oil had the highest levels of NK activity, followed by those from broilers fed algal biomass or echium oil, and those from broilers fed FO had the lowest levels of NK activity. These findings imply that adding n-3 PUFA to chickens without having a major negative impact on their immune system is possible using a DHA-rich algal product. In conclusion, this research added to our understanding of how dietary n-3 PUFA affects the immune system in broiler chickens. Such findings emphasise the need for the poultry business to take into account the health state of poultry when n-3 PUFA, particularly EPA, are added to poultry flesh.

Author(s) Details:

Hanan Al-Khalaifah,
Environment and Life Sciences Research Center, Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research, PO Box 24885, 13109 Safat, Kuwait.

Afaf Al-Nasser,
Environment and Life Sciences Research Center, Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research, PO Box 24885, 13109 Safat, Kuwait.

Please see the link here: https://stm.bookpi.org/ECAFS-V7/article/view/8312