Antibacterial Activity of Rosmarinus officinalis and Lavandula angustifolia Essential Oils Against Selected Poultry Pathogenic Bacteria

Abstract

Poultry is the host of many speciesof bacteria and the intestine is the privilegedplace of their colonization and theirpersistence. These bacteria are the cause ofseveral cases of food poisoning in humansthrough the consumption of eggs or soiledchicken meat. In addition, these bacteriadevelop resistance to antibiotics that areadjusted to poultry feed as growth promoters.Essential oils are considered as importantsecondary metabolites for plant defense by their antimicrobial and antioxidant properties. These essential oils may be considered as a source of natural antimicrobials for the conservation of poultry food. The aim of our study is to isolate and identify bacterial strainsisolated from poultry and to determine the antibacterial and antioxidant activities ofRosmarinus officinalis and Lavandulaangustifolia essential oils on these bacterialstrains.Essential oils of Moroccan Rosmarinusofficinalis and Lavandula angustifolia wereextracted by hydrodistillation. Theidentification of their chemical compositionare performed by gas chromatography-massspectrometry. Antimicrobial activity ofextracted essential oils against Staphylococcusaureus, Clostridium perfringens, Escherichiacoli and Salmonella entiritidis was evaluatedby aromatogram test and Microdilution in aliquid medium. The identification of strains areperformed by several test: Gram staining,Kligler test, Catalase test, test Mobility and ApiGallery 20E. The results show that essentialoils tested have a considerable antibacterialactivity against all isolated bacterial strains.