Livestock Studies 2010, Vol 50, Num, 1     (Pages: 041-052)

The use of chitosan oligosaccharide in animal nutrition II- Antioxidative, antimicrobial and the other effects

Onur KESER 1 ,Tanay BİLAL 1

1 İstanbul Üniversitesi Veteriner Fakültesi Hayvan Besleme ve Beslenme Hastalıkları ABD, Avcılar/İSTANBUL - Chitosan is produced by deacetylation of chitin, an abundant natural polymer in exoskeletons of crustaceans and insects and in the cell wall of some fungi. Although it has many biological activities, its oligosaccharide form with higher soluble and lower molecular weight known as chitosan oligosaccharide was developed. Due to the recent studies have focused on natural saccharidic products that may be alternative to antibiotics, it made COS attracting. Besides its beneficial effects on immunity and performance, it was demonstrated that COS had antimicrobial, antioxidative, anticancer, antidiabetic, lipid and cholesterol lowering effects by recent studies. In the present paper, antioxidative, antimicrobial and other effects of COS in animals were investigated. Keywords : Antimicrobial, Antioxidant, Chitosan oligosaccharide