Clostridium perfringens challenge and dietary fat type modifies performance, microbiota composition and histomorphology of the broiler chicken gastrointestinal tract

Abstract

Summary The aim of the present study was to examine how different dietary fat types affect performance, microbiota composition in gastrointestinal tract digesta as well as ileum histomorphology of broiler chickens challenged with virulent Clostridium perfringens strains. Birds were fed on diets containing either soybean oil (SO), palm kernel fatty acids distillers (PKFD) or beef tallow (BT). In the periods 1–28 d, 28–42 d and 1–42 d, neither C. perfringens challenge nor the dietary fat type affected the body weight gain of the broiler chickens. However, feed intake was significantly affected by dietary fat type throughout the experiment ( P < 0.04), being highest in birds fed on BT containing diets. The feed conversion ratio was affected by dietary fat type only in the period 1–28 d, being lowest in challenged as well as unchallenged birds fed on PKFD containing diets. Irrespective of the fat type, C. perfringens challenge caused a significant increase in Clostridiaceae, Bacteroides and Streptococus/Lactococcus counts in crop, ileum and caeca digesta. In general, the SO containing diets resulted in the lowest counts of the investigated microbial populations. Inclusion of PKFD increased villus length in the ileum ( P < 0.001).