Effect of a functional encapsulated multivitamin on immune and oxidative responses in broiler chickens subjected to environmental and pathogenic stressors

商品肉鸡受到来自环境条件和病原感染的压力，改变了它们的健康状况，挑战了它们的免疫系统和抗氧化状态，导致了高死亡率，给养殖户造成了重大的经济损失。鉴于养鸡需求的增加，在没有预防性抗生素的情况下，开发缓解这些压力来源的方法至关重要。几种维生素是关键生物过程中有效的抗氧化剂和辅酶，因此是对抗管理、环境和病原性压力的成功策略。传统上，这些维生素以游离形式加入到肉鸡的日粮中，这使得它们在饲料加工过程中容易被氧化和热损伤，从而降低了它们在胃肠道中的有效性。胶囊技术保护和稳定可氧化底物，实现靶向递送，增强其促进健康的效果。因此，胶囊复合维生素有望成为一种有效的干预策略，与目前该行业使用的无保护复合维生素相比，具有显著的优点。此外，它们提高免疫和抗氧化状态的能力使它们成为一种合适的抗生素替代品，这有望帮助加拿大医疗系统节省每年在抗生素耐药性相关感染上花费的14亿美元。我们建议使用胶囊复合维生素补充剂来缓解温度挑战、大肠杆菌和艾美耳球虫引起的压力。(这每年给全球家禽业造成超过180亿美元的损失)。该项目将采用一系列实验、统计和分析技术，从而为HQP培训提供绝佳的机会-1名博士和2名本科生。研究结果将通过与家禽行业巨头Jefo Nutrition InCorporation的合作直接传输到使用中，Jefo Nutrition InCorporation与加拿大的家禽养殖户、饲料制造商、预混料公司、领先的研究机构和大学合作，创造出改善动物生产性能和福祉的产品，从而增加农民的利润，并随后对加拿大经济做出贡献。

Commercial broiler chickens experience stressors from environmental conditions and pathogenic infections, which alter their well-being and challenge their immune system and antioxidant status, leading to high mortality, which results in significant economic losses to farmers. Developing approaches to mitigate these stressors is critical given the increased demand to raise chickens without preventive antibiotics. Several vitamins are potent antioxidants and coenzymes for crucial biological processes and thus present a successful strategy to combat management, environmental and pathogenic stresses. Traditionally, these vitamins are incorporated into broiler chickens' diets in free form which makes them prone to oxidation and heat damage during feed processing, thereby reducing their effectiveness in the gastrointestinal tract. Encapsulation technology protects and stabilizes oxidizable substrates to achieve targeted delivery and enhance their health-promoting effects. Therefore, encapsulated multivitamins promise to be an effective intervention strategy, with significant merits over the unprotected multivitamins that are currently used in the industry. Moreover, their ability to boost the immune and antioxidant statuses presents them as a suitable antibiotic alternative, which promises to help save the $1.4 billion that Canadian healthcare system spends annually on antibiotic resistance-related infections. We propose to use an encapsulated multivitamin supplement to mitigate the stress induced by temperature challenge, E. coli, and Eimeria spp. (which cost the global poultry industry over 18 billion US dollars annually). The project will employ an array of experimental, statistical, and analytical techniques thus offering outstanding opportunities for HQP training - 1 Ph.D. and 2 undergraduate students. Results will be directly transmitted into use through a partnership with Jefo Nutrition Incorporation - a big player in the poultry industry who works with poultry farmers, feed manufacturers, premix companies, leading research institutes, and universities in Canada to create products that improve animal performance and well-being, thus increasing farmers' profit and their subsequent contributions to the Canadian economy.