Efficacy of probiotic Bacillus licheniformis DSM 28710 on performance and the mitigation of Clostridium perfringens-induced necrotic enteritis in broiler chickens

Abstract

The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of a probiotic Bacillus licheniformis strain (DSM 28710; B-Act^®) on growth performance and its capacity to mitigate necrotic enteritis (NE; induced via a Clostridium perfringens challenge) in poultry. A broiler trial was conducted, examining three treatments for 42 days under an induced NE challenge; a negative control (basal diet only); an antibiotic treated group (oxytetracycline hydrochloride (OXT), therapeutic dose of 105 mg OXT/litre in drinking water, for three days after C. perfringens challenge); and a B-Act group (500 g B-Act/tonne of feed, equalling 1.6×10¹² colony forming units B. licheniformis DSM 28710/tonne of feed, supplemented from start until finish). Despite the induced NE challenge, weight gains of the B-Act and OXT groups were similar to each other but significantly higher compared to the control at the end of the study (PPPPPClostridium perfringens induced NE challenge.