TDK conference 2019

Even though the domestication of animals dates back thousands of years, the accommodation to man-made housing systems and feeding techniques still puts a strain on both pets and livestock. Domestic animals in industrial farms face problems such as crowding and closeness, which implicate social and hierarchy issues. These conditions, on top of the intensive feeding and fast increase in body weight, put continuous stress on the animals.

Blocking the proper functioning of the immune system allows the facultative pathogen bacteria to infect the animals, leading to subclinical and clinical diseases. Even subclinical infections affect the production and cause a severe economic loss to the farmers. Since 2006 the preventive and growth promoting use of antibiotics on livestock is banned in the European Union, which greatly increased the role of alternative feed supplements. Fermented wheat germ extract, whose beneficial properties were first discovered in human oncology, shows great potential as a supplement, and is already used in many other fields of medical science.

Our experiment revolved around using the fermented wheat germ extract (1%, 2%, 4%) on IPEC-J2 porcine enterocytes. The samples were treated with the extract, various lipopolysaccharides (S. Typhimurium, E. coli O55:B5, E. coli O111:B4, E. coli O127:B8) and their combinations. We measured the cell viability with Neutral Red, to determine the redox statement we used Amplex Red and DCFH-DA methods. The anti-inflammatory properties were defined by sandwich ELISA test measuring the concentration of IL-6.

According to our results, fermented wheat germ extract significantly increases the number of living enterocytes and decreases the amount of intracellular ROS after LPS treatment. The level of IL-6 was also significantly decreased with fermented wheat germ extract. This substance can be an effective supplement to conventional treatment for gastrointestinal illnesses. As a feed additive for swine and other livestock it helps to maintain the normal functioning of the intestine, which can be beneficial to the production.