Combatting economic losses
Due to the versatility of the pathogeny of avian colibacillosis, APEC can be responsible for considerable economic losses affecting multiple species and multi-physiological stage poultry farming systems. In the meantime, the regulatory environment is progressively further restricting the use of antibiotics in livestock animal in efforts to halt the spreading of bacterial resistance.
On the field, consequences of APEC infection for young broilers lead to mortality in most cases. Reducing APEC intestinal carriage and faecal excretion could therefore contribute to the management of avian colibacillosis.
In this context, the ADM research and development (R&D) team is looking to evaluate the effect of a patented Copper-exchanged Clay (CeC) on APEC faecal excretion of chickens. The company has been working for almost 15 years to develop CeC, a unique and patented nutritional specialty aiming at securing digestive process.
This solution is based on an ion activated clay bringing to the product high antimicrobial potency on various pathogens. Its specificity is to act as a microflora modulator in the gut and to help monogastric animals face challenging periods.
CeC is backed up by scientific evidence: more than 60 trials are available which were run both in R&D and field conditions
French trial results
A study was carried out at INRA experimental infectiology platform in France, using 22-day old chicks Leghorn PA 12. The birds were orally inoculated with a highly pathogenic APEC O2 strain. Faecal bacterial counts, growth and mortality of animals supplemented with CeC were compared to an untreated group (UG).
Bacterial counts
Bacterial counts of total E. coli and APEC in faeces were performed in order to evaluate the colonisation in the gut. The inoculated APEC strain showed good gut colonisation abilities. It represented the majority of chickens E. coli flora until day 14 (100-78%). Diversification with non pathogenic E. coli mostly occurred after day 14.
CeC did not significantly alter APEC counts compared to control before day 14. However, CeC significantly reduced APEC count at day 19 (P<0.05) (Table 1). The reduction trend was maintained numerically at day 21 (Table 2).
Growth
Growth results and survival rate were also measured. CeC supplementation did not significantly alter body weight (BW) compared to UG (Table 3).
Mortality
Clinical cases of colibacillosis were obtained and confirmed at autopsy (pericardidis). Overall mortality rate was 18%. Mortality was not significantly different between treatments. But results in CeC group are encouraging: at day 1, only one animal was dead, instead of three in the UG (Figure 1).
A promising solution
Results of the monitoring of APEC excretion in faeces, combined with chicken survival and growth, suggest that copper exchanged clay is an effective solution in this study to reduce APEC intestinal carriage of inoculated birds. A positive effect was obtained after E. coli flora diversified. This preliminary work is encouraging and further studies are needed to confirm these results, especially on conventional poultry strains
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