Abstract
Necrotic enteritis (NE) caused by Clostridium perfringens is one of the most detrimental infectious diseases in poultry. This study examined the effect of blends of essential oils (BEOs) (25% thymol and 25% carvacrol) on NE and bacterial dynamics and functions in chicks challenged with C. perfringens. Chicks were assigned to a Control diet and BEOs diet (Control diet + 120 mg/kg BEOs), were challenged with C. perfringens from days 14 to 20 and were killed on day 21 for assessment. Supplementation with BEOs decreased the mortality, alleviated gut lesions, and decreased the virulence factors of pathogenic bacteria (VF 0073-ClpE, VF0124-LPS, and VF0350-BSH). Lack of supplementation also changed the nutrient and immunological dynamics of host microbiota in responding to C. perfringens infection. Adding BEOs changed the host ileum microbial population by increasing the numbers of Lactobacillus crispatus and Lactobacillus agilis, and decreasing Lactobacillus salivarius and Lactobacillus johnsonii. The functional roles of these changing host bacterial populations coupled with the putative reduced pathogenicity of C. perfringens by BEOs contributed to the reduction in gut lesions and mortality in infected chickens. It suggests that dietary supplementation with BEOs could significantly reduce the impact of NE caused by C. perfringens on broilers.
Highlights
Necrotic enteritis (NE) is one of the most detrimental infectious diseases in poultry
Our recent study suggested that the supplemental blends of essential oils (BEOs) product could decrease tumor necrotic factor (TNF)-α gene expression and increase interleukin (IL)-4 gene expression in the spleen of the broilers injected with lipopolysaccharides (LPS)[11], and could alleviate intestinal injury by improving intestinal integrity and modulating immune responses in the C. perfringens-challenged broiler chickens[12]
The C. perfringens challenged broilers whose diet was supplemented with BEOs had almost a 5-fold reduction (4 vs 20%) in mortality compared to their control counterparts that did not receive the BEOs-supplementation (Fig. 1)
Summary
Necrotic enteritis (NE) is one of the most detrimental infectious diseases in poultry. Clostridium is a genus of Gram-positive members of the domain Bacteria[4] comprised mainly of rod-shaped, anaerobic, endospore forming, and non-sulfur-reducing bacteria. C. perfringens challenge increased the intestinal populations of C. perfringens and Escherichia subgroup strains[10,11,12] and led to damage in the intestinal mucosa. Our recent study suggested that the supplemental BEOs product (a mixture of thymol and carvacrol) could decrease tumor necrotic factor (TNF)-α gene expression and increase interleukin (IL)-4 gene expression in the spleen of the broilers injected with lipopolysaccharides (LPS)[11], and could alleviate intestinal injury by improving intestinal integrity and modulating immune responses in the C. perfringens-challenged broiler chickens[12]. 16 S rRNA analysis can identify the species represented in a habitat and detects those that cannot be cultivated by conventional techniques[26]
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