Effects of dietary tannic acid and vaccination on the course of coccidiosis in experimentally challenged broiler chicken
An experiment was carried out to assess the influence of tannic acid (Ta) on integrity of the intestine
In broiler Chicks vaccinated against coccidiosis and challenged with the disease In a 2*2 factorial design the trial had five groups of 10 chickens each including positive (group2) and negative (group1)
Controls. The chickens were kept on wood shavings and fed a commercial maize and soybean-based
Starter-grower diet. From day 1 , groups3 and 5 received TA ( 10 gkg-1) in their diet. On day4,birds of
Groups4 and5 were vaccinated orally against coccidiosis with anti-coccidial vaccine,Livacox (Ttm) .Each dose of the vaccine contained 300-500 sporulated oocysts of each of Eimeria acervulina,Eimeria maxima and Eimeria tenella. On day18, all experimental groups except for the negative (group1) werechallenged with 10-fold dose of livacox(Ttm) produce a mild coccodiosis infection. Faecal samples of individual birds were collected on day23, and the number of faecal oocysts was determined. D-xylose absorption test was also carried out on all birds on day23. Immedi-ately after D-xylose absorption test, all birds were killed humanely and the intestinal tract
Was removed, weighed and examined for gross lesions. Resultsshowed that negative(group1)and positive controls (group2)had the highest and lowest levels of plasma D-xylose post-ingestion of the substrate, respectively. Vaccination and/or feeding TA raised the level of plasma D-xylose in infected birds, although this was not significant for TA-fed birds.vac-cination reduced but TA increased the total number of oocysts per gram of faecec. birds of groups 2-5 had distinct intestinal lesions when compared with goup1. Howver, vacci-nation prevented intestinal lesions. Relative weights of intestinal parts were the lowest in goup1 and highest in goup2. Vaccination but not TA reduced the relative weights of intestinal parts in infected bids. It was concluded that dietary tannins may reduce the efficacy of anticoccidial vaccines and alter the proper development of immunity agains the disease.