Effect of a Synbiotic Mix on Intestinal Structural Changes, and Salmonella Typhimurium and Clostridium Perfringens Colonization in Broiler Chickens

Abstract

Simple SummaryIn Mexico, the poultry industry uses antibiotics to improve meat production through increased feed conversion, growth rate promotion, and disease prevention. Nevertheless, due to the negative effects of antibiotic overuse and abuse, alternative strategies are required. Probiotics, Prebiotics, and Synbiotics are used as feed additives to maintain health and performance status in poultry production and have become a common method in preventing various gut diseases, but the mechanisms of how these mixtures promote animal health are still unclear. This work studies whether a Synbiotic, besides modulating the gut microbiota, can modify the intestinal mucosa ultrastructure, and if this modification can promote health conditions without affecting zootechnical parameters in broilers infected with Salmonella Typhimurium and Clostridium perfringens. Our results show that broilers treated with the Synbiotic, whether infected with pathogens or not, had healthier intestinal mucosa. The Synbiotic mix promotes structural changes in the intestinal mucosa, which in turn promotes the capacity to resist intestinal infections caused by S. Typhimurium and C. perfringens in broilers.AbstractSynbiotics can prevent gastrointestinal infections in broilers. This work studies the effect of a Synbiotic on broilers. One-day-old male broilers were divided into groups: Control; Synbiotic; Synbiotic + S. Typhimurium; Synbiotic + C. perfringens; Synbiotic + S. Typhimurium + C. perfringens; S. Typhimurium; C. perfringens; and S. Typhimurium + C. perfringens. Histopathological analysis revealed that the Synbiotic promoted longer villi, less deep crypts, and better villi-crypt ratio. Broilers treated with the Synbiotic, infected with pathogens or not, had healthier mucosa. In groups infected with pathogens, the frequency and intensity of histopathologic lesions were lessened often in groups treated with the Synbiotic. The Synbiotic group had higher lactic acid bacteria counts than the Control group on day 39, and the isolation frequency of S. Typhimurium was lower (p < 0.05) in the Synbiotic-treated groups. On day 18, mucosa, villi, villi-crypt ratio, crypt, and feed intake were influenced by Enterobacteriaceae. However, on day 39 (end of the trial), those parameters were influenced by lactic acid bacteria. The Synbiotic influenced morphological modifications in the duodenal mucosa, which in turn gave the broilers the ability to resist infections caused by S. Typhimurium and C. perfringens, by inhibiting their growth and decreasing the intensity and frequency of histopathological injuries.

Intestinal Morphology, Energy Availability, and Growth Performance of Broilers Treated with the Combination of Probiotic and Inulin

“…Dietary probiotics and prebiotics have potencies for altering the structures of intestinal mucosa of broilers (Śliżewska et al, 2020;Jiang et al, 2020). Antibacterial activity in probiotics can reduce colonization of pathogenic bacteria in the intestine resulting in the optimal growth of villous (Villagrán-de la Mora et al, 2019). Nutrient utilization and absorptions are strongly influenced by the growth of villi because the absorption cells, Figure 2.…”

“…trophy cells, and entero-endocrine cells from the surface of the villi serve to expand the area of absorption (Yadav & Rajesh, 2019). The presence of pathogenic bacteria in the crypt villous area inhibits nutrient flow that eventually disturbs nutrients absorption (Gadde et al, 2017;Villagrán-de la Mora et al, 2019). Synbiotic showed a beneficial alteration in the intestinal microbiota composition, an increase in villi height, and crypt depth of intestinal mucosa in broilers (Sohail et al, 2012).…”

“…This synergistic mechanism was previously reported by Wang et al (2019) that L. plantarum ZLP001 growth was synergistically supported by fructo-oligosaccharide addition. The microbial colonization of synbiotic in the intestine inhibited the growth and activities of pathogenic bacteria in the intestine (Villagrán-de la Mora et al, 2019), which eventually enhanced the absorptions of glucose and amino acids (Jiang et al, 2020).…”

“…Jiang et al (2020) revealed that the addition of probiotics in combination with fructo-oligosaccharides improved the health status of chicken without increasing feed efficiency. Villagrán-de la Mora et al (2019) reported that the addition of probiotic and prebiotic in chicken could inhibit pathogenic bacteria and improve mucosal immunity. A study reported by Sarangi et al (2016) stated that dietary inclusion of probiotic and prebiotic did not show an increase in growth performances and meat qualities of broiler chickens.…”

Clostridium perfringens as Foodborne Pathogen in Broiler Production: Pathophysiology and Potential Strategies for Controlling Necrotic Enteritis

“…perfringens , said pathogen displaces or inhibits the native microbiota, particularly the Clostridial community, whose proportion in healthy birds is represented by Clostridium proponicum , Clostridium leptum , and Ruminococcusbromii . Competition between clostridials probably allows bacteria such as lactobacilli to increase their enumerations and the overpopulation of other less dominant species [ 38 , 74 , 75 ].…”