Effect of chemical treatment of poultry diets on the control of salmonella enteritidis in broilers

ABSTRACT

To evaluate the effect of acid treatment of broilers' diet to control S. enteritidis, propionic acid [PA], buffered propionic [BAP], lactic [LA] and formic [FA] acids were used at levels of 0.6% and 0.8% in experiment I. The inclusion of PA and FA at level of 0.6% in sterilized starter diet was capable to reduce S. enteritidis contamination from 1 X 10 3 to < 10 CFU/g feed at 2 h post- inoculation. BAP and LA seemed to be less effective in controlling S. enteritidis contamination in broilers diet. Experiment II planned to study the effect of feeding PA at two levels [0.6 and 0.8%] in broilers diet to control S. enteritidis infection in broiler chickens. The PA fed at level of 0.8% had given encouraging results as it was able to eliminate mortalities and to cease shedding of S. enteritidis at 3-day post-inoculation. However, S. enteritidis was recovered from the intestine and the cecum of the slaughtered chickens at the end of 6 weeks experimental period at rates of 3.3 and 6.7%, respectively. Continuous feeding of PA at 0.8% level had no adverse effect, but lowered abdominal fat%, and significantly improved dressing%. The foregoing results suggest that use of PA at level of 0.8% may be able to control broilers carcasses contamination with S. enteritidis by eliminating the main source of salmonella contamination which is feed