PAKISTAN VETERINARY JOURNAL

Pak Vet J, 2026, 46(9) 2282-2292

Dietary Supplementation with Lactiplantibacillus plantarum AB11 Mitigates Aflatoxin-Induced Toxicity and Enhances Growth Performance, Blood Biochemistry, Immune Gene Expression, and Cecal Microbiota in Japanese Quail

Soha A. Alamoudi^1*, Mada F. Ashkan², Amera N. Alqahtani³, Hanan AlOmari³, Nahla Alsayd Bouqellah⁴, Raha Osailan⁵, Mohammad A.A. Al-Najjar⁶, Nouf Aldawood⁷, Saad A. Alamri⁸, Sarah A. Althubyani^9,10, Nawaa Ali H. Alshammari¹¹, Mohammed Al-Rasheed^12* and Hend A. Elakkad¹³

¹Department of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia; ²Biological Sciences Department, College of Science and Arts, King Abdulaziz University, Rabigh, 21911, Saudi Arabia; ³Department of Biological Sciences, College of Science, University of Jeddah, Jeddah, 21589, Saudi Arabia; ⁴Department of Biology, College of Science, Taibah University, Madinah, 42353, Saudi Arabia; ⁵Department of Biology, College of Science in Yanbu, Taibah University, Yanbu Governorate, Saudi Arabia; ⁶Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Pharmaceutics, Faculty of Pharmacy, Applied Science Private University, Amman, 11937, Jordan; ⁷Department of Biology, College of Science, Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University, P.O.Box 84428, Riyadh 11671, Saudi Arabia; ⁸Department of Biology, College of Science, King Khalid University, Abha P.O. Box 9004, Saudi Arabia; ⁹Department of Biology, College of Science, Taibah University, Madinah, Saudi Arabia; ¹⁰Health and Life Research Center, Taibah University, Madinah 42353, Saudi Arabia; ¹¹Department of Chemistry, College of Science, Northern Border University, Arar 73222, Saudi Arabia; ¹²Department of Clinical Sciences, College of Veterinary Medicine, King Faisal University, Al-Ahsa, P.O. Box 400, 31982, Saudi Arabia; ¹³Biochemistry Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Zagazig University, Zagazig, 44511, Egypt

*Corresponding author: Saalamudi@kau.edu.sa (SAA); malrasheed@kfu.edu.sa (MAR)

Abstract

Aflatoxins are among the most prevalent mycotoxins in poultry feed, significantly impairing livestock health and productivity by inducing growth depression, hepatotoxicity, and immunosuppression. This study aimed to identify a natural mitigation strategy by isolating and characterizing probiotic bacteria with antifungal and antioxidant potential to mitigate aflatoxin-induced toxicity in quails. Forty bacterial isolates from dairy samples were screened for antifungal activity against Aspergillus niger and Fusarium oxysporum. The isolated Lactiplantibacillus plantarum AB11 (L. plantarum AB11) was identified as Lactiplantibacillus plantarum by morphological and biochemical tests and confirmed by MALDITOF. In-vitro, AB11 exhibited considerable probiotic traits, including high survival under acidic conditions (91.2% at pH 2.5) and bile salts (85.3% at 0.3%). AB11 (400 µg/mL) also showed dose-dependent antioxidant activity, reaching 90% DPPH scavenging. A 21-day in vivo trial on 210 eight-day-old Japanese quails allocated to seven dietary treatments evaluated aflatoxin-contaminated feed with or without L. plantarum AB11or Triton X 100. The inclusion of L. plantarum AB11 (400 mg/kg) in the quails' diet markedly alleviated aflatoxin-induced damage, improving growth performance, feed efficiency, liver function (lower AST, ALT, MDA), antioxidant status (higher SOD, GSH, CAT), and immunity (higher IgG, IgA). At the molecular level, L. plantarum AB11 downregulated aflatoxin-induced overexpression of immune genes, CYP1A1, AHR1, IL-1β, and Casp-3, and beneficially modulated the gut microbiota by reducing pathogenic microbes while enriching lactic acid bacteria. These findings indicate that L. plantarum AB11 is a promising dietary probiotic for protecting poultry against aflatoxin toxicity.

To Cite This Article: Alamoudi SA, Ashkan MF, Alqahtani AN, AlOmari A, Bouqellah NA, Osailan R, Al-Najjar MAA, Aldawood N, Alamri SA, Althubyani SA, Alshammari NAH, Al-Rasheed M and Elakkad HA, 2026. Dietary supplementation with Lactiplantibacillus plantarum AB11 mitigates aflatoxin-induced toxicity and enhances growth performance, blood biochemistry, immune gene expression, and cecal microbiota in Japanese quail. Pak Vet J, 46(9): 2282-2292. http://dx.doi.org/10.29261/pakvetj/2026.218

Abstract

ISSN 0253-8318 (Print)ISSN 2074-7764 (Online)

ISSN 0253-8318 (Print)
ISSN 2074-7764 (Online)