Abstract
The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of the dietary supplementation of Bacillus subtilis DSM 32315 (probiotic) on the performance and intestinal microbiota of broiler chickens infected with Clostridium perfringens (CP). One-day-old broiler chickens were assigned to 3 treatments with 8 replicate pens (50 birds/pen). The treatments were: non-infected control; infected control; and infected supplemented with probiotic (1 × 106 CFU/g of feed). On day of hatch, all birds were sprayed with a coccidia vaccine based on the manufacturer recommended dosage. On d 18–20 the infected birds were inoculated with CP via feed. Necrotic enteritis (NE) lesion score was performed on d 21. Digestive tract of 2 birds/pen was collected on d 21 to analyze the ileal and cecal microbiota by 16S rRNA sequencing. Performance was evaluated on d 28 and 42. On d 21, probiotic supplementation reduced (p < 0.001) the severity of NE related lesion versus infected control birds. On d 28, feed efficiency was improved (p < 0.001) in birds supplemented with probiotic versus infected control birds. On d 42, body weight gain (BW gain) and feed conversion ratio (FCR) were improved (p < 0.001) in probiotic supplemented birds versus infected control birds. The diversity, composition and predictive function of the intestinal microbial digesta changed with the infection but the supplementation of probiotic reduced these variations. Therefore, dietary supplementation of Bacillus subtilis DSM 32315 was beneficial in attenuating the negative effects of CP challenge on the performance and intestinal microbiota of broilers chickens.
Highlights
Clostridium perfringens (CP) is a natural inhabitant of the poultry intestinal tract that generally lives in balance with other microbial groups, causing no harm to the host [1]
At d 21, uninfected birds showed no characteristic lesions of Necrotic enteritis (NE) in the intestine but infected broilers had their lesion score increased (p < 0.001) to 1.20 on a 0 to 3 scale (Table 2)
The results of this study demonstrated that the dietary supplementation with Bacillus subtilis DSM 32315 might be a useful strategy to attenuate the negative effects of NE in broilers
Summary
Clostridium perfringens (CP) is a natural inhabitant of the poultry intestinal tract that generally lives in balance with other microbial groups, causing no harm to the host [1]. Mortality increases in more severely affected birds [7]. These symptoms characterize an important reemerging disease of modern poultry production: necrotic enteritis (NE). NE and other intestinal diseases remained controlled in broilers by the use of feed antibiotics as growth promoters (AGP). One of the consequences of this is an increase in the prevalence of NE in broilers [8]. NE is estimated to cost the poultry industry about U$ 6 billion a year in production losses and control measures [9]. Significant efforts have been devoted to better understand the epidemiology of NE in broilers and to develop new measures to control field outbreaks of the disease [10,11]. Probiotics are one of the feed additives under investigation for this purpose [12]
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