| Abstrakt: |
Campylobacter jejuni(C. jejuni) is one of the most important zoonotic pathogens worldwide. In Europe, the majority of the cases are caused by consuming contaminated poultry meat. The objective of the present study was to investigate potential effects of different crude protein levels in complete diets for broilers on infection dynamics of C. jejuniafter experimental infection. In total, 300 commercial broilers line Ross 308 were divided into 4 different groups, including 5 replications of 15 chickens each. The chickens were fed a conventional diet (212 g CP/kg DM) and a protein-reduced test diet (190 g CP/kg DM) supplemented with essential amino acids. This resulted simultaneously in lower amino-acid concentrations preferentially utilized by C. jejuni, such as aspartate, glutamate, proline, and serine. One group of each feeding concept was infected artificially with C. jejuniat day 21 by applying an oral C. jejuniinoculum containing 4.17 ± 0.09 log10cfu of C. jejunito 3 of 15 chickens, called “seeders.” Feeding the test diet resulted in a significant reduction (P < 0.001) in CP intake (31.5 ± 1.20 g CP/broiler/day and 27.7 ± 0.71 g CP/broiler/day, respectively), a significant decrease (P < 0.05) in crude mucin in excreta (55.7 ± 8.23 g/kg DM and 51.9 ± 7.62 g/kg DM, respectively), and in goblet cell number in cecal crypts (P < 0.05; 15.1 ± 5.71 vs. 13.6 ± 5.91 goblet cells/crypt). In groups receiving the test diet, the excretion of C. jejuniwas significantly reduced in seeders by 1.9 log10cfu/g excreta at day 23 (3.38a ± 2.55 vs. 1.47b ± 2.20; P = 0.033). At day 25, prevalence of C. jejuniin cloacal swabs amounted to 53.3% in the group fed the test diet and 75.7% in the control group, respectively (P < 0.05). In summary, a definite amino acid pattern in the broiler diets could contribute to a development of an effective feeding strategy to reduce the prevalence of C. jejuniinfection in chickens (Patent No 17187659.2-1106). |
