Effects of selenium nanoparticles coated with chitosan supplementation on morphometry of immune organs, redox status, and immune response in broiler chicken

The present study evaluated the effects of dietary selenium nanoparticles (SeNP) coated with chitosan (CS) supplementation on immune organsmorphology, redox status, and humoral and cellular immune responses in broilers. Day-old chicks (n = 240) were divided into 5 groups with 8 replicates per group (6 birds/replica). The basal diet was given to the control group, whereas the rest of the four (4) groups received basal diet supplementation with sele-nium nanoparticles (SeNP, 0.5 mg/kg), chitosan (CS, 200 mg/kg), SeNP + CS (0.5 mg/ kg + 200 mg/kg), and SeNP coated with CS (SeNP-C-CS, 200 mg/kg). At the end of the experiment (d 35), 2 birds from each replica were sampled to collect the whole blood, spleen, and bursa of Fabricius. Results indicated that supplementation of SeNP and SeNP-C-CS sig-nificantly increased (P < 0.05) lymphatic nodular length and lymphatic nodular number in cecal tonsils, respectively. Supplementation of SeNP + CS and SeNP-C-CS increased (P < 0.05) the lymphatic follicular area of the bursa of Fabricius, SeNP, and SeNP-C-CS increased (P < 0.05) catalase and decreased cholesterol levels in serum, and SeNP, CS, and SeNP-C-CS increased (P < 0.05) the antibodies titers against sheep RBCs. Thus, we concluded that SeNP-C-CS supplementation improved the morphology of immune organs, redox status, and humoral immune responses in broilers.