Date: 2007-11-01
J.P. Higgins, S.E. Higgins, J.L. Vicente, A.D. Wolfenden, G. Tellez and B.M. Hargis
The authors concluded that in these studies, LAB treatment significantly reduced recovery of salmonella in day-of-hatch broilers.
Numerous attempts have been made to eliminate salmonella in broilers using probiotics. This research dates back to 1973 when Dr. Esko Nurmi developed the idea. It is important that the attempt to control salmonella colonization in chickens begin at day of hatch, because the chicks often become colonized in the hatchery. The authors conducted a study to evaluate the ability of a commercially available lactic acid bacteria-based probiotic culture (LAB) to reduce Salmonella Enteritidis or Salmonella Typhimurium in day-of-hatch broiler chicks.
In these experiments, chicks were challenged with Salmonella Enteritidis or Salmonella Typhimurium and treated with LAB one hour after challenging the chicks with salmonella. Following treatment, cecal tonsils and ceca were aseptically collected and either enriched microbiologically for the presence of Salmonella Enteritidis or Salmonella Typhimurium or Salmonella Enteritidis enumeration, respectively.
In experiments 1 through 3, lactic acid bacterial populations significantly reduced the incidence of Salmonella Enteritidis (60 percent to 70 percent reduction) or Salmonella Typhimurium (89 percent to 95 percent reduction) recovered from the cecal tonsils of day-old broiler chicks 24 hours following treatment as compared with controls (P < 0.05). Additionally, administration of LAB caused a >2.9 log10 reduction of total cecal Salmonella Enteritidis recovered 24 hours following treatment as compared with controls (P < 0.05). In experiments 4 to 7, upon sample enrichment, LAB significantly reduced the recovery of Salmonella Enteritidis from the cecal tonsils at 24 hours, but not 6 or 12 hours post-treatment (P < 0.05). However, in experiments 6 and 7, when total cecal Salmonella Enteritidis populations were enumerated, a significant treatment-associated reduction was observed 12 hours post-treatment. However, in cecal tonsil samples, there was no difference in Salmonella Enteritidis incidence at 12 hours (P < 0.05).
J.P. Higgins, S.E. Higgins, J.L. Vicente, A.D. Wolfenden, G. Tellez and B.M. Hargis; 2007. Temporal effects of lactic acid bacteria probiotic culture on salmonella in neonatal broilers. Poultry Science, 86(8): 1662-1666.