The effects of a combination of garlic, oyster mushroom and propolis extract in comparison to antibiotic on growth performance, some blood parameters and nutrients digestibility of male broilers

A study was conducted to evaluate the combined effects of garlic, oyster mushroom and propolis extract on the growth performance, organ weights, antibody response to Newcastle Disease Virus (NDV), serum lipid concentrations and nutrient digestibility of male broilers. A total of 192 day old chicks (Ross 308) were randomly assigned to 3 treatments with 4 replications (16 birds per replication). Experimental treatments were a maize- soybean based diet as control, control diet supplemented with a combination of garlic (30 g/kg), oyster mushroom (2 g/kg) and propolis extract (0.2 g/kg) known as GMP, and control diet supplemented with Virginamycin (0.25 g/kg) as antibiotic. The inclusion of GMP decreased (p < 0.05) live body weight, average daily gain and feed intake but had no effect on feed conversion ratio when compared to control diet. GMP and antibiotic had no effects on relative weight of organs. Antibiotic decreased (p < 0.05) the relative weight of small intestine segments. GMP decreased total cholesterol but did not affect other serum lipids when compared to control group. Antibiotic increased (p < 0.05) cholesterol concentration in serum. The inclusion of GMP to the diet improved antibody response to NDV when compared to control and antibiotic diets. In conclusion, the results showed that GMP decreased growth performance but improved immunity of broiler chickens. More studies should be performed to confirm the action modes of such combinations.(AU)

Noise and microflora behavior.

Noise is ubiquitous, and in any discussion about regulation of immune diversity, oral tolerance, commensal microflora, and "health" homeostasis, stochastic resonance should not be omitted. It also may have a role in immune receptor regulation, transplant tolerance, and host reaction against intruders. It would be in line with nature's tendency to adapt to available network patterns.

Assimilation, tolerance and the end of innocence

Immunological activity is conceptually and biochemically related to digestion and assimilation processes. Food materials comprise the vast majority of foreign macromolecules handled by the organism. Lympphocyte activation involves partial digestion ("processing") of both foreign and self molecules. Immunoglobulins accelerate the clearance (by opsonization) and intracellular digestion of materials to which they bind. Immunological activity may, therefore, be seen as a network of processes facilitating the assimilation of foreign materials. This same network is continuously incorporating new (emergent) cellular and molecular components into the lymphoid system. In oral tolerance, the organism is usually seen as becoming permissive to the presence of previously ingested antigens, as if their presence remained unacknowledged. However, the exposure of orally-tolerant animals to the tolerated antigens blocks the concomitant induction of unrelated immune responses. The assimilation of tolerated antigens to the network of lymphocyte activities, therefore, may have broad consequences. We claim that these "indirect effects"of the tolerated antigen cannot be ascribed to "innocent bystander"suppression, i.e. to fortuitous proximity to cells releasing suppressive cytokines.