Dietary Pterostilbene Improves Growth Performance, Redox State, Immune Function and Mitigates Eimeria-Induced Intestinal Damage in Broiler Chickens

This study examined the efficacy of pterostilbene (PTE) as an additive to broiler chicken diets to enhance growth, improve health, and combat coccidiosis, using a combination of in vivo and in silico studies.Four hundred male Ross 308 broiler chicks (newly hatched) were randomly divided into four groups: control (CON), Eimeria-challenged (COC), low-dose PTE (PTE-L), and high-dose PTE (PTE-H).The results revealed that diet PTE enhanced growth parameters, such as final body weight and feed efficiency, especially in challenged birds.The hemolymph biochemistry revealed that PTE-H minimized the high levels of AST and ALT in the challenged birds, implying better liver condition.Digestive enzyme activities in the jejunum were significantly increased in PTE-enriched groups relative to the COC group.Whole-body composition analysis indicated a higher amount of crude protein and a lower amount of crude fat with PTE-H.PTE also enhanced the functions of main antioxidant enzymes (SOD, GPx, CAT) and reduced malondialdehyde (MDA) concentrations in liver and jejunum.In addition, it reduced pro-inflammatory cytokines (IL-1β, IL-6, TNF-α) in both the blood and intestinal tissues.Both the PTE-L and PTE-H groups had significantly lower scores in the intestinal lesion and oocyst shedding in the coccidiosis challenge trial, with PTE-H having the greatest level of protection.The in silico data indicated high binding affinities of pterostilbene to major Eimeria proteins, which indicated possible direct anticoccidial effects.Our results indicate that dietary pterostilbene is a good nutritional strategy to promote the health, productivity and coccidiosis resistance in broiler chickens because of its multifunctional antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and gut-modulating properties, which are possibly supplemented by direct anticoccidial action.Optimizing dosage and administration for commercial scales and studying the long-term economic sustainability of pterostilbene as a chicken industry alternative to standard anticoccidial medicines are required.