Effects of Bacillus subtilis on performance, immune system and gut in Salmonella-challenged broilers

Abstract

The goal of this study was to compare the effects of Bacillus subtilis and the antibiotic enrofloxacin on growth performance, immune response, intestinal histomorphometry and cecal Salmonella numbers in broilers challenged with S. gallinarum. Salmonella-free chicks (n = 240) were allocated to four groups, comprising six replicates (n = 10) each. Group NN was not infected and received no treatment. Group SN was infected with Salmonella and received no treatment. Group SE was infected with Salmonella and treated with the antibiotic enrofloxacin. Group SP was infected with Salmonella and treated orally with the probiotic B. subtilis. Initially the groups that were infected with Salmonella had reduced growth performance compared with NN. By the fourth week, SE and SP had recovered and weighed as much as or more than NN. The SP group had greater cellular immunity and relative weights of the bursa and thymus than the other groups. SN had the lowest villus height in all the segments of the small intestine and a larger Salmonella population in the ceca. Probiotic supplementation reduced the pathological outcomes more than enrofloxacin. Prophylactic use of B. subtilis-type probiotics had similar effects to the use of antibiotics, alleviated the stress related to infection of S. gallinarum, and improved the growth performance, immune function, and gut mucosal development in broilers.
 Keywords: growth promoters, immunity, probiotics, poultry villi length

Effects of Bacillus amyloliquefaciens LFB112 on Growth Performance, Carcass Traits, Immune, and Serum Biochemical Response in Broiler Chickens

“…There was a trend of increase in thymus relative weight on days 1, 7, and 35 of birds after in ovo inoculation of prebiotics and synbiotics [ 60 ]. Interestingly, the relative weights of thymus and bursa decreased in the group infected with S. gallinarum but increased after being treated orally with the probiotic B. subtilis A [ 61 ]. Shabani et al explained that this enhanced weight might be due to a compensatory mechanism through which more antibodies were produced to combat the disease condition [ 62 ].…”

Effect of Bacillus subtilis on the microarchitectural development of the immune system in Salmonella-challenged broiler chickens

“…The freeze-dried culture was purified in a Salmonella-Shigella agar and incubated overnight in a tryptone soy broth (Oxoid Ltd, Basingstoke, UK) prior to the chick's challenge. On day 3, a total of 0.2 ml suspension of S. gallinarum as a challenge medium was administered orally through gavage to all the groups except NC and similar volume (0.2 ml) of peptone water (sterile buffered; Sigma-Aldrich Inc, St Louis, Missouri, USA) was inoculated to the control group (NC) birds (Sikandar et al 2020).…”

“…Due to this ban, the animal husbandry sector has been confronted with many challenges to achieve the desired growth performance (Abudabo et al 2019). As a result of extensive research, effective substitutes, such as in-feed probiotics, have surfaced that control the pathogen and possess the growth promoting properties that are comparable to those of antibiotics (Khalique et al 2020;Sikandar et al 2020). Bacteria can be used as probiotics upon meeting certain criteria, such as non-pathogenicity, growth inhibition of pathogenic organisms, its tolerance in gut secretions, support for the immune system and its capability to attach to the enterocytes (Gadde et al 2017).…”

Effect of garlic supplementation on zootechnical performance and hepato-renal functions in nitrate-treated rabbits

“…Similar histopathological changes were documented in rabbits affected by nitrate (Sharma et al, 2013) and rats (Bouaziz et al, 2015;Ansari et al, 2017). Histological alterations in the normal parenchyma and epithelial lining are known to weaken the gastrointestinal physiology (Sikandar et al, 2020). Chronic utilization of sodium nitrite led to renal carcinogenicity and nephrotoxicity in rats (Al-Gayyar et al, 2016).…”