Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-mkpzs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T06:49:46.508Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Early life experiences affect the adaptive capacity of rearing hens during infectious challenges

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 May 2010

I. Walstra ,
J. ten Napel ,
B. Kemp ,
H. Schipper  and
H. van den Brand
I. Walstra*
Affiliation:
Adaptation Physiology Group, Wageningen University, PO Box 338, 6700 AH Wageningen, The Netherlands Animal Breeding and Genomics Centre, Wageningen UR Livestock Research, PO Box 65, 8200 AB Lelystad, The Netherlands
J. ten Napel
Affiliation:
Animal Breeding and Genomics Centre, Wageningen UR Livestock Research, PO Box 65, 8200 AB Lelystad, The Netherlands
B. Kemp
Affiliation:
Adaptation Physiology Group, Wageningen University, PO Box 338, 6700 AH Wageningen, The Netherlands
H. Schipper
Affiliation:
Experimental Zoology Group, Wageningen University, PO Box 338, 6700 AH Wageningen, The Netherlands
H. van den Brand
Affiliation:
Adaptation Physiology Group, Wageningen University, PO Box 338, 6700 AH Wageningen, The Netherlands
*
†E-mail: irene.walstra@wur.nl
Get access

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate whether pre- and early postnatal experiences of rearing hens contribute to the ability to cope with infectious challenges at an older age. In a 2 × 2 factorial arrangement, 352 Lohmann Brown chicks were exposed to either suboptimal or optimized incubation plus hatch conditions, and to cage or enriched rearing from week 0 to 7 of age. After week 7 all rearing conditions were similar until the end of the experiment. The development of adaptive capacity to infectious challenges was investigated by introducing an Eimeria and Infectious Bronchitis (IB) infection on day 53 and day 92, respectively. BW gain and feed intake during the infections, duodenal lesions and amount of positive stained CD4+ T cells, CD8+ T cells and macrophages at day 4 and day 7 after Eimeria infection, as well as the IB antibody titer throughout the experimental period were determined. The results showed a significant interaction between incubation plus hatch and rearing environment. Optimized incubation plus hatch conditions followed by an enriched rearing environment resulted in the least weight loss (P < 0.05) and the highest feed intake (P < 0.01) from day 3 to day 7 after the Eimeria infection (day 56 to 60 of age), compared with all other treatments. In addition, the optimized × enriched chicks had the highest BW gain from day 7 to day 14 after IB infection (day 99 to 106 of age), compared with chicks housed in a cage environment (P < 0.01). Besides the interaction, optimized incubation plus hatch alone resulted in reduced macrophage numbers in the duodenal tissue at day 4 after Eimeria infection, compared with suboptimal incubation plus hatch, whereas the enriched rearing environment stimulated the recovery of intestinal damage caused by Eimeria (P < 0.05) and reduced the production of specific antibodies after IB infection (P < 0.05), compared with the cage environment. In conclusion, this study shows that early life experiences can indeed affect the capacity of rearing hens to cope with an Eimeria and IB infection at an older age, in which performance of chicks is best maintained after optimized incubation plus hatch followed by enriched rearing. This suggests that the development of adaptive capacity to infectious challenges can be influenced with management during a short period in pre- or early postnatal life, but that effects last for a considerable time after cessation of the specific management.

Keywords

early life conditionsadaptationlaying hensinfectious diseases
Type
Full Paper
Information
animal , Volume 4 , Issue 10 , October 2010 , pp. 1688 - 1696
Copyright
Copyright © The Animal Consortium 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bar-Shira, E, Sklan, D, Friedman, A 2005. Impaired immune responses in broiler hatchling hindgut following delayed access to feed. Veterinary Immunology and Immunopathology 105, 33–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bell, DD, Weaver, WD 2002. Commercial Chicken Meat and Egg Production, 5th editionKluwer Academic, London, UK.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bhanja, SK, Devi, CA, Panda, AK, Sunder, GS 2009. Effect of post hatch feed deprivation on yolk-sac utilization and performance of young broiler chickens. Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences 22, 1174–1179.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
De Jong, IC, van Voorst, AS, Erkens, JHF, Ehhardt, DA, Blokhuis, HJ 2001. Determination of the circadian rhythm in plasma corticosterone and catecholamine concentrations in growing broiler breeders using intravenous cannulation. Physiology & Behavior 74, 299–304.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
De Wit, JJ 2000. Detection of infectious bronchitis virus. Avian Pathology 29, 71–93.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dibner, JJ, Knight, CD, Kitchell, ML, Atwell, CA, Downs, AC, Ivey, FJ 1998. Early feeding and development of the immune system in neonatal poultry. Journal of Applied Poultry Research 7, 425–436.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
French, NA 1997. Modeling incubation temperature: the effects of incubator design, embryonic development, and egg size. Poultry Science 76, 124–133.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Friedman, A, Bar-Shira, E, Sklan, D 2003. Ontogeny of gut associated immune competence in the chick. World’s Poultry Science Journal 59, 209–219.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gallup, GG 1974. Animal hypnosis – factual status of a fictional concept. Psychological Bulletin 81, 836–853.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hill, D 2001. Chick length uniformity profiles as a field measurement of chick quality? Avian and Poultry Biology Reviews 12, 88.Google Scholar
Honjo, K, Hagiwara, T, Itoh, K, Takahashi, E, Hirota, Y 1993. Immunohistochemical analysis of tissue distribution of B and T-cells in germ-free and conventional chickens. The Journal of Veterinary Medical Science 55, 1031–1034.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Huff, GR, Huff, WE, Balog, JM, Rath, NC 2001. Effect of early handling of turkey poults on later responses to a dexamethasone-Escherichia coli challenge. 1. Production values and physiological response. Poultry Science 80, 1305–1313.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hulet, R, Gladys, G, Hill, D, Meijerhof, R, El-Shiekh, T 2007. Influence of egg shell embryonic incubation temperature and broiler breeder flock age on posthatch growth performance and carcass characteristics. Poultry Science 86, 408–412.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Janczak, AM, Braastad, BO, Bakken, M 2006. Behavioural effects of embryonic exposure to corticosterone in chickens. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 96, 69–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jones, RB, Mills, AD, Faure, JM, Williams, JB 1994. Restraint, fear, and distress in japanese-quail genetically selected for long or short tonic immobility reactions. Physiology & Behavior 56, 529–534.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kajiwara, E, Shigeta, A, Horiuchi, H, Matsuda, H, Furusawa, S 2003. Development of Peyer’s patch and cecal tonsil in gut-associated lymphoid tissues in the chicken embryo. The Journal of Veterinary Medical Science 65, 607–614.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Larsson, A, Balow, RM, Lindahl, TL, Forsberg, PO 1993. Chicken antibodies: taking advantage of evolution – a review. Poultry Science 72, 1807–1812.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lourens, A 2001. The importance of air velocity in incubation. World Poultry 17, 29–30.Google Scholar
Lourens, A, Van den Brand, H, Meijerhof, R, Kemp, B 2005. Effect of eggshell temperature during incubation on embryo development, hatchability, and posthatch development. Poultry Science 84, 914–920.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lourens, A, Molenaar, R, Van den Brand, H, Heetkamp, MJW, Meijerhof, R, Kemp, B 2006. Effect of egg size on heat production and the transition of energy from egg to hatchling. Poultry Science 85, 770–776.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Merlot, E, Couret, D, Otten, W 2008. Prenatal stress, fetal imprinting and immunity. Brain Behavior and Immunity 22, 42–51.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Molenaar, R, Reijrink, IAM, Meijerhof, R, Van Den Brand, H 2008. Relationship between hatchling length and weight on later productive performance in broilers. World’s Poultry Science Journal 64, 599–603.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nakane, PK 1975. Recent progress in peroxidase-labeled antibody method. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 254, 203–211.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Noy, Y, Uni, Z, Sklan, D 1996. Routes of yolk utilisation in the newly hatched chick. British Poultry Science 37, 987–995.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Noy, Y, Geyra, A, Sklan, D 2001. The effect of early feeding on growth and small intestinal development in the posthatch poult. Poultry Science 80, 912–919.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Piestun, Y, Halevy, O, Yahav, S 2009. Thermal manipulations of broiler embryos – the effect on thermoregulation and development during embryogenesis. Poultry Science 88, 2677–2688.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Reid, WM 1989. Recommending sanitary practices for coccidiosis control. In Proceedings of the 5th International Coccidiosis Conference, Tours, France, pp. 371–376.Google Scholar
Star, L 2008. Robustness in laying hens; influence of genetic background, environment and early-life experiences. PhD, Wageningen University. Retrieved from http://library.wur.nl/wda/dissertations/dis4495.pdfGoogle Scholar
Thompson, FM, Mayrhofer, G, Cummins, AG 1996. Dependence of epithelial growth of the small intestine on T-cell activation during weaning in the rat. Gastroenterology 111, 37–44.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Vallee, M, Mayo, W, Dellu, F, LeMoal, M, Simon, H, Maccari, S 1997. Prenatal stress induces high anxiety and postnatal handling induces low anxiety in adult offspring: Correlation with stress-induced corticosterone secretion. The Journal of Neuroscience 17, 2626–2636.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Van Immerseel, F, Cauwerts, K, Devriese, LA, Haesebrouck, F, Ducatelle, R 2002. Feed additives to control Salmonella in poultry. World’s Poultry Science Journal 58, 501–513.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vanbesien-Mailliot, CCA, Wolowczuk, I, Mairesse, J, Viltart, O, Delacre, M, Khalife, J, Chartier-Harlin, MC, Maccari, S 2007. Prenatal stress has pro-inflammatory consequences on the immune system in adult rats. Psychoneuroendocrinology 32, 114–124.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Weinstock, M 1997. Does prenatal stress impair coping and regulation of hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis? Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews 21, 1–10.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed