Across the world, many commercial poultry flocks and captive birds are threatened by infection with Aspergillus fumigatus. Susceptibility to aspergillosis varies among birds; among galliform birds specifically, morbidity and mortality rates seem to be greater in turkeys than in chickens. Little is known regarding the features of avian immune responses after inhalation of Aspergillus conidia, and to date, scarce information on inflammatory responses during aspergillosis exists. Thus, in the present study, we aimed to improve our understanding of the interactions between A. fumigatus and economically relevant galliform birds in terms of local innate immune responses. Intra-tracheal aerosolization of A. fumigatus conidia in turkey and chicken poults led to more severe clinical signs and lung lesions in turkeys, but leukocyte recovery from lung lavages was higher in chickens at 1dpi only. Interestingly, only chicken CD8+ T lymphocyte proportions increased after infection. Furthermore, the lungs of infected chickens showed an early upregulation of pro-inflammatory cytokines, including IL-1β, IFN-γ and IL-6, whereas in turkeys, most of these cytokines showed a downregulation or a delayed upregulation. These results confirmed the importance of an early pro-inflammatory response to ensure the development of an appropriate anti-fungal immunity to avoid Aspergillus dissemination in the respiratory tract. In conclusion, we show for the first time that differences in local innate immune responses between chickens and turkeys during aspergillosis may determine the outcome of the disease.

中文翻译：

---

对鸡和火鸡雏鸡实验性曲霉病先天免疫反应调节的细胞和分子见解

在世界各地，许多商业家禽群和圈养鸟类受到烟曲霉感染的威胁。对曲霉病的易感性因鸟类而异。特别是在鸡形鸟类中，火鸡的发病率和死亡率似乎高于鸡。关于吸入曲霉分生孢子后禽类免疫反应的特征知之甚少，迄今为止，关于曲霉病期间炎症反应的信息很少。因此，在本研究中，我们旨在提高我们对烟曲霉和经济相关鸡形鸟类在局部先天免疫反应方面的相互作用的理解。烟曲霉气管内雾化火鸡和鸡雏中的分生孢子导致火鸡更严重的临床症状和肺部损伤，但仅在 1dpi 时，鸡从肺灌洗液中回收的白细胞更高。有趣的是，感染后只有鸡 CD8+ T 淋巴细胞比例增加。此外，受感染鸡的肺部显示出促炎细胞因子的早期上调，包括 IL-1β、IFN-γ 和 IL-6，而在火鸡中，这些细胞因子中的大多数显示出下调或延迟上调。这些结果证实了早期促炎反应的重要性，以确保形成适当的抗真菌免疫以避免曲霉菌呼吸道传播。总之，我们首次表明，曲霉病期间鸡和火鸡之间局部先天免疫反应的差异可能决定了疾病的结果。