FAYETTEVILLE — The poultry industry loses up to $6 billion annually due to necrotic enteritis, a preventable intestinal disease in poultry, including broiler chickens.
An Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station poultry science researcher is evaluating a new possible solution using a novel vaccine combined with a bile acid regimen.
Xiaolun “Jack” Sun, a researcher and associate professor for the experiment station, the research arm of the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture, was awarded a four-year, $650,000 grant by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture to advance the research. Sun is developing a vaccine and exploring the use of bile acids to fight this serious and costly disease that’s impacting producers’ productivity and profits.
“We want to develop a new measure to prevent this disease,” Sun said. “We want to develop something effective and affordable to bring the desired results to the industry.”
Necrotic enteritis has been controlled by coccidiostats and antibiotics. Coccidiostats are a type of medication used in poultry and livestock production to prevent and control coccidiosis, a parasitic disease.
Sun said concerns of antimicrobial resistance by consumers, the poultry industry and regulatory agents have prompted restrictions on the use of antimicrobials in the U.S. poultry industry. These restrictions likely contributed to an increase in necrotic enteritis.
The disease that generally affects young broiler chickens is caused by an overgrowth of the bacteria Clostridium perfringens and a parasite called Eimeria maxima in the small intestine. The bacteria and the parasite damage the animal’s intestinal wall, impeding nutrient absorption. In chickens, symptoms include poor growth, diarrhea, depression, deformed feathers, and, in some cases, death.
Sun aims to develop a “multiepitope fusion antigen” vaccine, or MEFA vaccine, to target C. perfringens growth and infection in the gut.
A multiepitope fusion antigen is a type of recombinant protein, which is a protein produced by genetically engineered cells. What makes MEFA vaccines unique is the combination of multiple “antibody-generating sites,” called epitopes, into one protein. Epitopes are the parts of the protein that trigger an immune response.
By having multiple epitopes in one molecule, MEFA vaccines can simultaneously target several features of the disease-causing pathogen, known as virulence points. Sun said this theoretically makes the vaccine more effective by triggering a stronger and broader immune response.
In simple terms, a MEFA vaccine is like a multi-tool that can target different weaknesses in a pathogen, providing better protection against infections.
