Probiotic Prophylaxis for Enterococcus cecorum Prevalence in the Free Thoracic Vertebra of Broiler Chickens

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

(SA3). Both treatments resulted in a significant decrease in prevalence of colonization of spleens and free thoracic vertebrae at Day 42 compared to the challenge controls, with no effects on performance parameters or total mortality. In Experiment 2, four treatment groups were administered either no treatment (challenge controls), the day-of-age probiotic gel alone, the probiotic gel plus DFM 1, or DFM 1 alone. At 42 days of age, both the probiotic alone and the probiotic plus DFM 1 resulted in a significant decrease in colonization of the free thoracic vertebrae compared to the challenge controls, with the DFM alone being statistically intermediate. There were no impacts on performance parameters, livability, or lameness compared to the challenge controls. These results suggest that the day-of-age probiotic and the DFM may be a useful tool in controlling enterococcal spondylitis, and further larger-scale trials are warranted to assess impacts on clinical signs and performance.