The In Vitro and In Vivo Effect of Carvacrol in Preventing Campylobacter Infection, Colonization and in Improving Productivity of Chicken Broilers

Abstract

The current trend in reducing the antibiotic usage in animal production imposes urgency in the identification of novel biocides. The essential oil carvacrol, for example, changes the morphology of the cell and acts against a variety of targets within the bacterial membranes and cytoplasm, and our in vitro results show that it reduces adhesion and invasion of chicken intestinal primary cells and also biofilm formation. A trial was conducted to evaluate the effects of dietary supplementation of carvacrol at four concentrations (0, 120, 200, and 300 mg/kg of diet) on the performance of Lactobacillus spp., Escherichia coli, Campylobacter spp., and broilers. Each of the four diets was fed to three replicates/trial of 50 chicks each from day 0 to 35. Our results show that carvacrol linearly decreased feed intake, feed conversion rates and increased body weight at all levels of supplementation. Plate count analysis showed that Campylobacter spp. was only detected at 35 days in the treatment groups compared with the control group where the colonization occurred at 21 days. The absence of Campylobacter spp. at 21 days in the treatment groups was associated with a significant increase in the relative abundance of Lactobacillus spp. Also, carvacrol was demonstrated to have a significant effect on E. coli numbers in the cecum of the treatment groups, at all supplementation levels. In conclusion, this study shows for the first time that at different concentrations, carvacrol can delay Campylobacter spp., colonization of chicken broilers, by inducing changes in gut microflora, and it demonstrates promise as an alternative to the use of antibiotics.

Carvacrol ameliorates acute campylobacteriosis in a clinical murine infection model

“…Carvacrol treatment starting 4 days prior murine infection could sufficiently lower intestinal C. jejuni burdens up to 2 orders of magnitude until day 6 p.i. The antimicrobial properties of carvacrol directed against food-borne pathogens such as C. jejuni [26,29,30,37] Salmonella spp. [37,[43][44][45], Escherichia coli O157:H7 [46] and Bacillus cereus [47,48] have been shown in vitro recently.…”

“…In addition, carvacrol possesses ATPase-inhibiting activity [22,23] and is proposed to act as a proton exchanger that reduces the pH gradient across the cytoplasmic membrane causing changes in proton motive force and in the ATP pool, which leads to cell death [23,24]. Both, in vitro and in vivo studies revealed that carvacrol application could effectively reduce C. jejuni loads in intestinal samples derived from chicken [25][26][27][28]. Furthermore, carvacrol could effectively reduce virulence gene expression and invasion of C. jejuni into chicken cells [26,29].…”

“…Both, in vitro and in vivo studies revealed that carvacrol application could effectively reduce C. jejuni loads in intestinal samples derived from chicken [25][26][27][28]. Furthermore, carvacrol could effectively reduce virulence gene expression and invasion of C. jejuni into chicken cells [26,29]. Most importantly, the finding that carvacrol application resulted in inhibition of motility and invasive properties of C. jejuni in vitro points towards carvacrol as a promising candidate molecule for the combat of human campylobacteriosis [30].…”

Effect of Carvacrol Tested on Different in vivo and in vitro Experimental Studies: Systematic Review

“…In the Table 1 we have the approach of two articles with in vitro and in vivo analysis, showing important aspects such as reduction in colony formation in Campylobacter sp infected chickens and reduction of Echinococcus granulosus cyst in mice [9,10]. In the Table 2 we have three large areas related to the approach in the studies, firstly effects with anticancer activity being evidenced in four studies, demonstrating cellular apoptosis and reduction of Bcl-2, reduction of gastric cancer with use of nanoparticles, reduction of intestinal lesions, and genotoxicity in lymphomas.…”

Field Interventions Against Colonization of Broilers by Campylobacter

“…A plant‐derived antimicrobial (carvacrol), which can be extracted from oregano oil, was shown to have inhibitory effects for adhesion and invasion of Campylobacter to chicken epithelial cells (Kelly et al., ). When fed (120 to 300 mg/kg feed), it delayed natural colonization by Campylobacter in a 600‐bird study, although cecal counts were similar to control birds by 35 days of age.…”