Effects of repeated-low level sodium chlorate administration on ruminal and fecal coliforms in sheep

Abstract

The objective of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of oral sodium chlorate administration on reducing total coliform populations in ewes. A 30% sodium chlorate product or a sodium chloride placebo was administered to twelve lactating Dorper X Blackbelly or Pelibuey crossbred ewes averaging 65 kg body weight. The ewes were adapted to diet and management. Ewes were randomly assigned (4/treatment) to one of three treatments which were administered twice daily by oral gavage for five consecutive days: a control (TC) consisting of 3 g sodium chloride/animal/d, a T3 treatment consisting of 1.8 g of sodium chlorate/animal/d, and a T9 treatment consisting of 5.4 g sodium chlorate/animal/d; the latter was intended to approximate a lowest known effective dose. Ruminal samples collected by stomach tube and freshly voided fecal samples were collected daily beginning 3 days before treatment initiation and for 6 days thereafter. Contents were cultured quantitatively to enumerate total coliforms. There were no significant differences in total coliform numbers (log10 cfu/g) in the feces between treatments (P = 0.832). There were differences (P < 0.02) in ruminal coliform counts (log10 cfu/mL) between treatments (4.1, 4.3 and 5.0 log10/mL contents in TC, T3 and T9 Treatments, respectively) which tended to increase from the beginning of treatment until the 5th day of treatment (P < 0.05). Overall, we did not obtain the expected results with oral administration of sodium chloride at the applied doses. By comparing the trends in coliform populations in the rumen contents in all treatments, there was an increase over the days. The opposite trend occurred in the feces, due mainly to differences among rumen contents and feces in ewes administered the T9 treatment (P = 0.06). These results suggest that the low chlorate doses used here were suboptimal for the control of coliforms in the gastrointestinal tract of ewes.

Influence of Pine Bark Tannin on Bacterial Pathogens Growth and Nitrogen Compounds on Changes in Composted Poultry Litter

“…Additions of biochar (BC) to poultry litter composted for fertilizer lowered N losses by 52% (Steiner et al, 2009), but it did not clear that the N fixed with BC can be used effectively by ruminants. Besides composting, chemical compounds such as sodium chlorate have been used to control pathogens in the gastrointestinal tract of ruminants (Anderson et al, 2002;Edrington et al, 2003;Callaway et al, 2003;Callaway et al, 2004: Anderson et al, 2005Taylor et al, 2012;Arzola et al, 2014;Copado et al, 2014). Short-chain nitro compounds also have shown bactericidal effects on Salmonella spp., Escherichia spp.…”