The effect of some natural alternative to antibiotics on growth and changes in intestinal histology in broiler exposed to Salmonella challenge.

This study was conducted to find the effect of different feed additives on the production performance and intestinal histology in Salmonella challenged birds. A total of 600 day-old-broiler chicks (Ross 308) were assignment to 10 treatments. Each treatment was further divided into 10 replicates. The chicks were randomly divided into one of the following 10 treatments as follow: Negative control; positive control infected with Salmonella enterica subsp. typhimurium; T1, infected + avilamycin at the rate of 0.2 g/kg; T2, infected + probiotic having viable spores (2 × 107 CFU/g) of Bacillus subtilis (ATCC PTA-6737); T3, infected + Sanguinarine consisting of benzo phenanthridine alkaloids from Macleaya cordata; T4, B. subtilis (ATCC PTA-6737) + Sanguinarine; T5, infected + B. subtilis 500 g/T of feed (1.2 × 106 cfu/g); T6, prebiotic, Saccharomyces boulardii (1 × 108cfu/g); T7, infected + oregano at the rate of 1 g/kg; T8, infected + thermally processed clay calcium montmorillonite. The results showed that feed intake was significantly (P < 0.01) high in negative control and T2 compared to the positive control. Body weight gain was significantly (P < 0.01) higher in negative control and significantly (P < 0.05) low in T8. Feed conversion ratio was significantly (P < 0.05) high in negative control and significanlty (P < 0.05) high in T6. Similarly, PEF was also significantly (P < 0.05) high in negative control and significantly (P < 0.05) low in positive control and T8. Villus width was significantly (P < 0.05) high in negative control followed by T8. Dietary supplementation of different feed additives may be useful in broiler chicks challenged with Salmonella infection.