Comparative Evaluation on the Effect of Coccidiostate and Synbiotic Preparations on Prevention of Clostridiumperfringens in Broiler Chickens

Clostridium perfringens (C. perfringens) is the organism that causes necrotic enteritis in birds and badly affects the poultry industry. Although Salinomycin is an anticoccidial drug but it may indirectly affects C. perfringens infection. Synbiotics preparations are nowadays used as natural products to exclude enteric infections like C. perfringens. This study was designed to make a comparative evaluation on the effect of coccidiostate Salinomycin and synbiotic preparation on prevention of C. perfringens in broiler chickens. Two hundred day-old meat type chicks were assigned into 5 equal separate groups (1-5) each of 40 birds. Chickens of group (1) and (2) were fed on ration containing the coccidiostate (Salinomycin) and synbiotic preparations, respectively from the first day of old till the end of the study. Birds in group (3) received ration containing both products (Salinomycin and synbiotic) for all entire period of the experiment. Each bird in groups 1, 2, 3 and 4 was orally inoculated with 0.5 ml of C. perfringens broth culture (10s CFU/ml) at 14 days old. Birds in group (5) were kept as a blank negative control (non-treated and non-challenged). All the groups were kept under complete observation for 3 weeks after challenge (35 days of age). Clinical signs, mortalities, gross lesions, performance variables, intestinal and caecal bacterial count as well as histopathological examination were taken as criteria for evaluation. Results indicated that using of Salinomycin and synbiotic alone or in combination was effective in prevention of C. perfringens as expressed by reduction of signs, mortalities, lesions and intestinal count and also improving the performance parameters of broiler chickens. It was concluded that using of some feed additives like Salinomycin was nearly effective as using of natural product like synbiotic in prevention of C. perfringens. Moreover, the combination of both treatments was superior in prevention than using of each separately.