Efficacy of Some Selected Antimicrobial Substances in Prevention of Enteric Bacterial Infection in Broiler Chicks

Abstract

This study was carried out to investigate the efficacy of autogenous bacterin from enteric bacteria isolated from chicken feeds, commercially prepared probiotic, conventional antibiotics as well as Zingiber officinale extract in prevention of enteric bacterial infection in broiler chickens. A total of 1,536 samples of different brands of chicken feeds were collected and screened for the presence of enteric bacteria using pour plate technique.The pathogenic potentials of the isolates on chickens were investigated by challenging the chickens orally using 0.5 ml of the inoculum (10⁸cells/ml). The efficacy of locally prepared autogenous bacterin (AB), commercially prepared probiotics (CP), autogenous bacterin plus probiotics (ABCP), ciprofloxacin (CPX), Oxytetracycline (OXY) and Zingiber officinale (ZO) extract were investigated using in vivo method. The titer of antibodies produced by the vaccinated chickens was determined using micro agglutination test. Escherichia coli O157:H7 SS52 (EC), Salmonella ser. Typhimurium U288 (ST), Escherichia coli SEC470 (ES), Salmonella ser. Enteritidis YU39 (SY) and Salmonella ser. Enteritidis FM366 (SE) were isolated from the feed samples. There were significant obvious pathological signs and lesions in the internal organs of the infected non-protected chickens, which decreased significantly (P<0.05) when the chicks were protected with CP, ZO, CPX, OXY and ABCP. The internal organs of the infected non-protected chickens showed high viable mean plate counts (VMPCs) and these were significantly (P<0.05) decreased when protected with the antimicrobial agents, of which the VMPCs of ABCP were the least. Moreover, the serological investigation revealed an improvement in the titer of antibiotics after vaccination and probiotic treatment. The tested antimicrobial agents have proved to be safe and effective against the isolates, of which ABCP showed the most pronounced activity.

Keywords: Enteric Bacteria, autogenous Bacterin, Zingiber officinale, ciprofloxacin, probiotic, Oxytetracycline,