Necrotic enteritis in meat chicken raised at the ground in permanent bedding

Abstract

Poultry necrotic enteritis is an acute clostridial infection characterized by severe necroses of intestinal mucosa. The disease begins suddenly, with a sharp increase in death rate and dehydration. Clostridium perfringens, a sporulated, anaerobic, Gram-positive bacterium is commonly found in the environment and in the gastrointestinal tract as part of the normal intestinal flora. Frequent presence in the digestive tract of healthy birds is associated with necrotic enteritis in broilers. The research was conducted on 323 samples (120 live chickens, 89 corpses, 104 feed samples and 10 water samples) collected from a farm with 32 253 hybrid Ross 308 broilers (21 days), raised at the ground on permanent bedding, where there was a significant increase in mortality above the permissible limit. The necropsy performed on 980 chicken corps revealed a different prevalence of intestinal tract lesions: bleeding wall (28.37%), mucosal necrosis (23.22%), gas content (18.57%), mucosal inflammation (15.73%) and red orange mucus in the intestines (14.10%). Bacteriological examination identified Clostridium perfringens in 11.66% of live broilers, 10.11% of chicken corps, 61.53% of feed samples and 3.09% of water samples. Increased percentage this species isolation suggests that feed taken from the hall was an important source of infection for broilers reared on the ground.