In vivo Antimicrobial Potentials of Garlic against Clostridium perfringens and Its Promotant Effects on Performance of Broiler Chickens

Abstract

This study was conducted to investigate in vivo antimicrobial potential of garlic against Clostridium perferinges and resultant promotant effects on performance of the broiler chickens. Garlic powder was used as an alternative to GPAs (Growth Promotant Antibiotics) to prevent subclinical Necrotic Enteritis (NE) due to C. perferinges. 120 day-old broiler chicks were randomly distributed to six treatment groups of 20 chicks each (2 replicates(-10) chicks). Six isonutrient diets supplemented with garlic at graded levels of 0.0, 0.5, 1.0, 1.5, 2.0 and 2.5 g kg(-1) were fed to the birds for seven weeks. Data were collected weekly on performance parameters including feed intake, weight gain and feed conversion ratio (FCR). Also, on the 21 35 and 49th days of the study, two birds per group were randomly selected, slaughtered and dissected. 1 g of caecal contents per each bird were sampled into labelled sterile sample bottles. The samples were subjected to culturing, bacterial identification and colony counting. All data were subjected to analysis of variance. Results showed that garlic significantly (p > 0.05) depressed feed intake (3310 g feed/bird at 1.0 g kg(-1) supplementation) but improved FCR. The supplement has no significant effect on weight gain but C. perfringens colony counts in the treated groups, were numerically reduced (lowest count, 0.93 x 10(5) cfu g(-1) at 1.0 g kg(-1) supplementation), as compared to the control. It is therefore concluded that diets could be supplemented with garlic at dose range of 1.0 to 1.5 g kg(-1) to prevent subclinical NE and achieve improved performance in birds.

The Genus Allium as Poultry Feed Additive: A Review

“…Recently, allium derived feed additives have been given useful results against several infectious diseases in broilers such as the infection of Escherichia coli, Salmonella, Clostridium perfringens, and Eimeria [27,71,72,[89][90][91]. Elmowalid et al [89] reported that garlic dietary supplementation for three weeks provided in vivo protection against multi-drug resistant E. coli O78 challenge in broilers by reducing the mortality rates to >10% from 60% (control, non-supplemented birds).…”

“…The authors suggested the efficacy of garlic against multidrug resistant Salmonella by reducing its invasion, resistance to antimicrobial agents, and biofilm formation ability. Jimoh et al [90] reported that garlic at the various supplementation levels reduced the caecal load of C. perfringens as compared with the control group and attributed to the OSCs.…”

In vitro efficacy of allicin on chicken Eimeria tenella sporozoites

“…In the last years, several plant extracts were tested for potential use against chicken coccidiosis. Garlic is one of the most important plants to prevent other poultry diseases in field (Peinado et al 2012;Jimoh et al 2013).…”

Effects of dietary mixture of garlic (Allium sativum), coriander (Coriandrum sativum) and probiotics on immune responses and caecal counts in young laying hens

“…In contrast to these observations, a study by Jimoh et al. () demonstrated that feeding dietary garlic at 0.1% for 7 weeks significantly ameliorates FCR mainly due to depressed feed intake in broilers. Guler et al.…”

“…Garlic ( Allium sativum ) has been studied as an alternative for antibiotics because garlic and its bioactive compound, allicin, have various biological functions including reducing total serum lipids, phospholipids and cholesterol (Augusti and Mathew, ), shifting gut microbial populations to less pathogenic profiles (Ankri and Mirelman, ), and suppressing cholesterol biosynthesis (Qureshi et al., ). In fact, previous studies demonstrated that dietary garlic improves growth performance and egg quality including egg weight and albumen height as well as meat quality of chickens (Birrenkott et al., ; Choi et al., ; Jimoh et al., ). Furthermore, several studies showed the immunomodulatory effect of garlic to suppress Clostridium perferinges and Eimeria acervulina infection (Birrenkott et al., ; Kim et al., ).…”