Carotenoid-enriched Transgenid Corn in Poultry Nutrition

Vitamin A deficiency (VAD) is one of the most important micronutrient deficiencies globally. It is prevalent throughout the world, but it is particularly severe in Africa and South-East Asia. The main underlying cause of VAD is a chronic insufficient vitamin A intake in the diet, which can lead to disorders such as xerophthalmia, anaemia and weakened resistance to infection. It has been estimated that VAD affects up to one third of the world’s pre-school-age children and up to 15% of pregnant women 1 .Vitamin fortification programs are unsustainable due to poor governance, inefficient food distribution networks, and the prevalence of subsistence agriculture in rural populations 2 . Biofortification of staple crops with organic nutrients is a cost-effective and sustainable approach as exemplified by Golden Rice 3 with high-levels of β-carotene, and Multivitamin Corn 4 accumulating high levels of β-carotene, zeaxanthin, lutein, lycopene, ascorbic acid, and folate. Vitamin A and carotenoid metabolism in chickens is closely related to the equivalent processes in humans. Consequently chickens are also susceptible to vitamin A deficiency with similar symptoms.

We thank CESAC (Poultry Health Center of Catalonia and Aragon) for conducting the coccidia experiments; HIPRA Spain for providing E. tenella sporulated oocysts; IRTA-Mas de Bover for diet formulation and manufacture; and X. Subirana, S. Isanta andN. Duran for their involvement in the trials. This research was supported by grants BIO2011-22525 and PIM2010PKB-00746 CAROMAIZE, from Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad (MINECO), Spain; European Research Council IDEAS Advanced Grant Program (BIOFORCE to P.C.); European Research Council IDEAS Proof of Concept Program (Multinutrient Maize to P.C.) and RecerCaixa PC084082. J D-G acknowledges the Universitat de Lleida for a PhD fellowship.