Editorial: The role of the pancreas in poultry

The role of the pancreas in poultryThe pancreas in poultry secretes continuously a secretion that hydrolyzes proteins, fats and carbohydrates to monomers that can be absorbed into the blood (Batoev, 2001;Batoev, 2018;Berdnikov et al., 2009).Both during fasting and after a meal, pancreatic secretion is regulated by nervous and hormonal pathways (Pavlov, 1951).Feeding serves as a powerful stimulator of pancreatic secretion.The period of reflex phase regulation of pancreatic secretion in broiler chickens begins in the first minutes of feed intake and lasts up to 90 min from the moment of feeding (Vertiprakhov et al., 2018).At this time, the regulation of the pancreas is provided reflexively, and the feed consumed by the bird ends up in the goiter or stomach, and pancreatic juice is intensively secreted into the intestine under the influence of impulses arriving via parasympathetic fibers from the digestive center in the medulla oblongata, where they come from the receptors of the oral cavity (Vertiprakhov and Egorov, 2016).In this case, depending on the strength of the stimulus acting on oral receptors, the level of pancreatic secretion changes, i.e., this period is conditioned by gustatory sensations from the quality of feed.Feed intake increases pancreatic juice secretion 2-3 times compared to the preprandial period (Vertiprakhov and Ovchinnikova; Vertiprakhov et al.).Studies on chickens and other birds have shown that the avian gustatory system consists of taste buds that are not assembled in papillae but are located mostly (60%) in the upper palate, hidden in the crevices of salivary ducts (Liu et al., 2018).Chickens appear to have an acute sense of taste that allows them to distinguish food amino acids, fatty acids, sugars, quinine, calcium and salt among others.A chemosensory system linked to the enteroendocrine system has been found in the gastrointestinal tract and hypothalamus of birds that mediates a dialog between the gut and the brain relevant to the control of food intake (Cheled-Shoval et al., 2015;Niknafs and Roura, 2018).Experimental data using realtime PCR showed the expression of taste receptor genes in chickens.The expression of these genes suggests the involvement of taste pathways for the perception of carbohydrates, amino acids and bitter compounds in the gastrointestinal tract of chickens.Umami taste is one of the five basic taste qualities, along with sweet, bitter, sour, and salty, and is determined by several amino acids and their salts, including monocalic glutamate (MPG) (Yoshida et al., 2015).The fact that the secretory function of the pancreas in chickens responds to flavor additives to feed is proved by experiments on birds with pancreatic duct fistula (Vertiprakhov, 2022).Thus, the presence of receptors in the bird's mouth cavity is the beginning of the reflex arc, which is directed to the medulla oblongata and determines the reflex phase of digestion regulation, which lasts from 0 to 60-90 min after feeding in chickens (Vertiprakhov, 2022).