Efficacy of Butyrate Additives Against Salmonella in Broilers

In the last XXV WORLD POULTRY CONGRESS Norel presented a trial evaluating the effect of protected sodium butyrates (NaBut) in broilers challenged with S. enteritidis. The effects were measured on fecal shedding and in organ contents. A total of 160 one day old chickens were distributed in three treatments: T1) Control feed, T2) T1 with 1.3 kg/t of Gustor N’RGY (70% NaBut), and T3) T1 with 3 kg/t of Gustor Coated (30% NaBut). At 5^th day, 20% of each group was orally inoculated with 10⁶ CFU of S. enteritidis and the presence in faeces was evaluated in all animals on days 6, 12, 19, 26, 33 and 41. The animals were sacrificed on d41, and crop, ceca, liver and spleen were sampled for microbiological counts. Salmonella in faeces showed a decrease in the percentage of positive plates (P<0.05) in supplemented treatments respect to the control at d41. However, T2 on d19 did not improve T1 results. No presence of Salmonella was detected in liver. In ceca, results were 94, 38, and 56%, for T1, T2, and T3, respectively (P<0.05). In crop, results were 94, 19 and 19%, for T1, T2, and T3 (P<0.05). In spleen, only birds fed the control (75%) showed Salmonella infection. It can be concluded that butyrate feed additives reduce the presence of Salmonella in feces and are able to prevent systemic infection in broilers experimentally challenged with S. enteriditis