Featured at the upcoming ICPIH (International Conference on Poultry Intestinal Health)

Our novel research model 'COALMINERS' to tackle chronic intestinal inflammation has been accepted for oral presentation at the prestigious International Conference on Poultry Intestinal Health (ICPIH).

As modern poultry broiler production pursues maximum live weight, the industry faces challenges including chronic intestinal inflammation and broader metabolic syndromes. Consequently, there is an urgent demand for realistic models to address these issues and support the poultry industry.

“The issue is that the existing "overly well-controlled" experimental settings fail to mirror real farming conditions,” highlighted Dr. Christos Gougoulias, Director of Innovation at Innovad.  

COALMINERS: A novel pragmatic approach 

To address this shortfall in existing methodologies, we propose a novel pragmatic approach: COALMINERS (ChrOnic intestinAl infLamMatIoN modEl under faRming conditionS). This method involves placing mini wired pens inside a broiler commercial facility while measuring several intestinal health indicators at different growing stages. In this manner, the birds under study are subjected to the cumulative production pressure. By manipulating the degree of exogenous introduced nutritional stressors, a spectrum of intestinal challenges can be generated. 

Our COALMINERS approach ensures that: 

  • The birds under study are exposed to production conditions. 
  • A gradient of intestinal challenges can be created by varying degrees of exogenous nutritionally-induced stressors. 
  • The frequent recording of specific intestinal health parameters is facilitated. 
  • A high level of replication is guaranteed. 
  • Real industry issues like flock uniformity, subclinical disorders like bacterial chondronecrosis with osteomyelitis (BCO), myopathies and mycotoxins are studied and adequately addressed by designing pragmatic solutions. 

Findings of our new model 

In one experiment, we discovered that only the COALMINERS group in real production farm conditions exhibited a proportional reduction in bacterial enteritis and sub-clinical coccidiosis over time. That was not the case in the conventional experimental setup. This disparity underscores the absence of 'cumulative production pressure' under the well-controlled conditions of the standard experimental settings.

In another iteration of the COALMINERS model, designed to study related mechanisms, transitioning from high to low-intensity natural heat stress, resulted in a significant decrease in intestinal and systemic oxidative stress. However, the counterpart inflammatory and immune responses increased significantly.  

“This indicates that the onset of animal immune and inflammatory responses may extend much longer than the initial trigger, thereby continuing to impact the animal's growth negatively,” Dr. Alireza Khadem, Innovation Manager at Innovad, highlights. “This observation forms the basis for the first direct quantification of 'energy loss' associated with chronic intestinal inflammation."

A novel approach for studying chronic inflammation  

"In conclusion, the COALMINERS model offers a pioneering system for studying chronic inflammation in chickens, by effectively addressing the fragile demands of modern poultry production," summarized Dr. Christos Gougoulias.  

Make sure to join Innovad's speed presentation session on COALMINERS, a 3-minute teaser, at ICPIH taking place on April 18th in Manila. 

Stop by Innovad's booth nr. 19 at ICPIH to speak with our experts about this novel approach or our other solutions to tackle the industry challenges.

 

For more information about ICPIH, visit their website here.