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Contributed Papers: Posters
Pathology

Necrotic Enteritis Association with
Eimeria acervulina and E. maxima


Greg F. Mathis, Southern Poultry Research, Inc. and C. Hofacre, Univ. of Georgia, Department of Avian Medicine

Necrotic enteritis is a common poultry disease caused by Clostridium perfringens. Reductions in feed efficiency, lower weight gain, and mortality are associated with this disease. Clostridium perfringens can rapidly grow when disturbances in the intestinal microflora or damage to the intestinal mucosa occur. An example of damage to the intestinal mucosa occurs with coccidiosis. Restrictions on in-feed anticoccidial usage and increasing usage of live coccidial vaccines, increases the potential for Necrotic Enteritis in commercial broiler chickens. The objective of this study was to examine association and experimental reproduction of Necrotic Enteritis (NE) in broiler chickens using Eimeria acervulina, E. maxima, or a combination of the two. The study consisted of rearing 10 male chickens/cage from day of hatch until 22 days of age. The treatments were noninfected, E. acervulina (75,000 oocysts/ bird) challenged, E. maxima (10,000 oocysts/ bird) challenged, and a combination at the same dose levels of E. acervulina and E. maxima. Each treatment was replicated 4 times. Birds were coccidia challenged at 14 days of age and Clostridium perfringens challenged at 19, 20, and 21 days of age. The performance parameters measured were feed conversion, average live weight gain, NE mortality, coccidiosis lesion scores (Day 20) and NE lesion scores (Day 22). Birds infected with E. maxima alone were more significantly affected by NE than birds challenged with the combination of species or E. acervulina alone. The least affected birds were those inoculated with E. acervulina alone. This study showed that both E. acervulina and E. maxima can cause enough intestinal damage to allow Clostridium perfringens proliferation and NE development. Even though NE developed with E. acervulina alone, the primary Eimeria species causing NE was E. maxima.

 

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