Eficacia de los moduladores de la flora intestinal a base de levaduras en el rendimiento de pollos de engorde bajo el desafío de enteritis necrótica causada por infección por Eimeria y Clostridium

Resumen

Necrotic enteritis (NE) is a severe inflammation of the small intestine that is increasingly affecting poultry due to the reduction in the use of antibiotics growth promoters. NE can be artificially induced by inoculation of coccidia and Clostridium perfringens (CP). Gut microbiota modulators derived from yeast cell wall are among the feed additives that improve broilers performance and confer them protection against NE by regulating the intestinal microbiota and modulating immunity. The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of MOS, β-glucans, FOS and GOS in reducing the effects of NE caused by coccidia and CP infections in broilers. A total of 770 1-day-old male chicks (Cobb 500) were divided into 7 treatments with 10 replicates: A negative control (NC) group without challenge; a positive control (PC) group with challenge without any additive in the diet; an antibiotic group (PCAGP) with 150 g/T enramycin; a GlucanMos® group (PCG) with MOS and β-glucans at a decreasing dose; a Golf®+GlucanMos® group (PCGG) with FOS, GOS, MOS and β-glucans at a decreasing dose; and 2competitor groups (PCC1 and PCC2) with similar products. All the birds, except those in the NC group, were challenged by oral gavage with 5,000 oocysts of Eimeria maxima at 15 days of age and with CP at 18, 19 and 20 days of age. Histological examination of the small intestine was performed at 25 and 42 days of age. At day 42, all the remaining birds were euthanized and productive performance, histomorphometry, and TMBES (necrotic enteritis score; M. De Gussem (2010)) were measured. Data were analyzed statistically in SAS using a multivariate analysis of variance and the results are expressed as mean and pooled standard error of the mean. On day 42, the weight of the birds in the PCGG group was significantly higher than all the others, and not significantly different from the NC group. Although there weren’t significant differences, the PC group had a lower viability than any of the other groups, showing the effect of the challenge. The PCAGP, PCG and PCGG groups had the highest viability. On day 42, the VH:CD ratio was significantly higher in the PCGG group than in any of the other groups. In this study, the use of gut microflora modulators (MOS and β-glucans) combined with prebiotics (FOS and GOS) offered the highest protection to the animals, allowing them to significantly improve their performance against the PC, and even (numerically) compared to the NC and the PCAGP.