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A posthatch fasting period of 24 to 72 h is a common and inevitable practice in commercial poultry production. This delay in start of feed intake has been reported to negatively affect yolk utilization, gastrointestinal development, slaughter weight, breast meat yield, performance, and to also depress immunological development, making the birds more susceptible to infection from pathogens such as Salmonella. Furthermore, public concerns regarding the considerable human rates of illness reported and the emergence of antibiotic-resistant strains of Salmonella have doubled the challenge on the poultry industry to find alternative means of Salmonella control. In the present study, we evaluated the effects of a combination of early feeding with probiotic supplementation on morphological development of mucosa, control of Salmonella, and overall performance in broiler chickens. We used a blend of a commercially available perinatal supplement, EarlyBird (EB; Pacific Vet Group USA Inc., Fayetteville, AR), and a successful probiotic supplement, FloraMax-B11 (FM; Pacific Vet Group USA Inc.), to evaluate the effects on gut morphology, Salmonella intestinal colonization, and horizontal transmission, along with its effects on BW and related performance in broiler chickens under simulated commercial hatching management and shipping conditions. Morphometric analysis showed increased villus height, villus width, villus to crypt ratio, and villus surface area index in chickens treated with EB + FM groups. Significant reductions in Salmonella recovery, incidence, and horizontal transmission were also observed among the same groups, suggesting beneficial effects of early feeding and competitive exclusion by probiotic bacteria. Improved gut morphology and Salmonella exclusion was very well supported by BW data with significantly lower early BW loss and overall BW gains in birds treated with EB + FM mixture. The results of this study demonstrated that the combination of EB and FM improved gut morphology, reduced the amount of Salmonella that could be recovered, as well as improved BW when compared with controls and each product individually. These data address both animal welfare and food safety concerns faced by the poultry industry.

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As effective probiotic Bacillus isolates that can increase BW gain (BWG) are identified, they may offer advantages in terms of stability, cost, and feed application over probiotics limited to drinking water application. Additionally, an effective direct-fed microbial (DFM) may offer an effective alternative to antibiotic growth promoters. Previously, 4 Bacillus isolates were identified and evaluated in our laboratory as potential DFM candidates. These isolates were shown to significantly increase BWG as well as reduce recovery of Salmonella after experimental infection. In the first experiment, isolates PHL-MM65 (a Bacillus laterosporus) and PHL-NP122 (a Bacillus subtilis) were evaluated using poults raised under commercial conditions. After 7 d of conventional brooding, poults were tagged, weighed, and placed in 1 of 4 replicate pens for each treatment group [negative control, 0.019% nitarsone, PHL-MM65 (10(6) spores/g of feed), or PHL-NP122 (10(6) spores/g of feed)] within the commercial turkey barn. At 23 d, poults were weighed and BW was calculated. Treatment with PHL-NP122 (853 g) or nitarsone (852 g) increased BW (P ≤ 0.05) compared with control (784 g), whereas treatment with PHL-MM65 (794 g) did not significantly improve BW. Also on d 23 of the trial, ceca were aseptically removed from 10 poults per pen and cultured for recovery of Salmonella. Both Bacillus isolates PHL-NP122 and PHL-MM65 resulted in a significant reduction (P ≤ 0.05) in the frequency of Salmonella by more than 25% compared with the controls. In a second experiment on a different farm, isolates PHL-NP122, PHL-RW33 (a B. subtilis), and PHL-B1 (a Bacillus licheniformis) were evaluated. None of the candidate Bacillus DFM or the group fed nitarsone had significantly different BW or BWG than untreated control. These data suggest that isolate PHL-NP122, when added as a DFM to turkey diets, may increase BW gain as well as nitarsone during the brooding phase of commercial turkey production.