Libidibia ferrea pode ser uma alternativa para imunomodulação em pintinhos na primeira semana de vida

Abstract

In poultry farming, there are several processes and stages, depending on the purpose of producing the bird and also its age or stage in the production process. The one-day-old chick does not have a fully formed immune system and goes through several stressful situations that can further compromise the immunity of this animal. Studies show the effect of Libidibia ferrea on oxidative stress and the control of these effects may represent an alternative to strengthen the immunity of the chick in the first week, especially through intestinal immunomodulation. Thus, this study aimed to evaluate a product based on the extract of the pod of Libidibia ferrea on the secretion of the cytokines IL-10 and IL-4 in the intestine, which are important immunomodulatory cytokines. Chicks in the first 3 days of age ingested the product and were stressed or not with heat stress and euthanized on the seventh day of life. The results showed that there was no difference in the levels of IL4 in the groups tested. On the other hand, there was a statistically significant increase in IL-10 production in chicks that received the product based on L. ferrea in both the stressed and non-stressed groups. In addition, the study was able to demonstrate the negative effect of stress on IL-10 production. Therefore, this work shows that the product is useful for minimizing the negative impacts of stress and improving the intestinal immunity of birds.