Dietary Lactose and its Effect on the Disease Condition of Necrotic Enteritis

Clostridium perfringens is the etiologic agent of necrotic enteritis (NE) and is ubiquitous in nature. The incidence of NE has increased in countries and commercial companies that have stopped using antibiotic growth promoters. The mechanisms of colonization of C. perfringens and the factors involve...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Poultry science 2007-08, Vol.86 (8), p.1656-1661
Main Authors: McReynolds, J.L, Byrd, J.A, Genovese, K.J, Poole, T.L, Duke, S.E, Farnell, M.B, Nisbet, D.J
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animal Feed
Animal Nutritional Physiological Phenomena
Animals
bacterial colonization
bacterial enteritis
broiler chickens
Chickens
Clostridium Infections - veterinary
Clostridium perfringens
Clostridium perfringens - isolation & purification
Diet - veterinary
disease control
disease severity
Dose-Response Relationship, Drug
Enteritis - diet therapy
experimental diets
Female
gastrointestinal system
Ileum - pathology
intestinal lesions
Jejunum - pathology
lactose
Lactose - pharmacology
lesions (animal)
Male
necrosis
Necrosis - diet therapy
Poultry Diseases - diet therapy
Poultry Diseases - microbiology
signs and symptoms (animals and humans)
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Summary:Clostridium perfringens is the etiologic agent of necrotic enteritis (NE) and is ubiquitous in nature. The incidence of NE has increased in countries and commercial companies that have stopped using antibiotic growth promoters. The mechanisms of colonization of C. perfringens and the factors involved in onset of NE are not fully understood. Previously, our laboratory has demonstrated that lactose could potentially reduce Salmonella and C. perfringens in ceca of poultry. In the present investigation, we hypothesized that dietary lactose would reduce the clinical signs of NE and could be used as an alternative to antibiotics. In experiment 1, day-of-hatch broilers were fed either a nonlactose control diet, a diet with 2.5% lactose, or a diet with 4.5% lactose throughout the experiment. Birds were administered C. perfringens (107 cfu/mL) daily via oral gavage for 3 consecutive days starting on d 17. When evaluating the intestinal lesions associated with NE, birds fed 2.5% lactose had significantly lower (P < 0.05) lesion scores (0.70 ± 0.52) compared with the control (1.55 ± 0.52) or the 4.5% lactose (1.60 ± 0.52). The data from the microbial analysis showed that the addition of lactose did not affect any bacterial populations when compared with the control birds that did not receive dietary lactose over the 21-d evaluation. The overall lesion scores in experiment 2 were significantly (P < 0.05) reduced in birds fed 2.5% lactose compared with the birds fed the control diet with mean lesion scores of 1.10 ± 0.73 and 1.80 ± 0.73, respectively. These experiments suggest that lactose could be used as a potential alternative to growth-promoting antibiotics to help control this costly disease.
ISSN:0032-5791
1525-3171
DOI:10.1093/ps/86.8.1656