Mitigating the Spread and Translocation of Salmonella Enteritidis in Experimentally Infected Broilers under the Influence of Different Flooring Housing Systems and Feed Particle Sizes

• Published in: Microorganisms (Basel) 2021-04, Vol.9 (4), p.874
• Main Authors: Ahmed, Marwa F E, Abd El-Wahab, Amr, Kriewitz, Jan-Philip, Hankel, Julia, Chuppava, Bussarakam, Ratert, Christine, Taube, Venja, Visscher, Christian, Kamphues, Josef
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Bedding; Birds; broiler; Campylobacter; Diet; diets physical form; E coli; floor designs; Flooring; Floors; Heating; Housing; Infections; Laboratory animals; Litter; Liver; Moisture content; Nutrition; Particle size; Poultry; Salmonella; Sand; Translocation; Zoonoses
• ISSN: 2076-2607; 2076-2607
• DOI: 10.3390/microorganisms9040874

This study aimed to evaluate the influences of different flooring designs and feed particle sizes on the spread of ( ) in broiler chickens. Birds ( = 480) were allocated to four different housing systems (fully littered with and without floor heating, partially and fully slatted flooring with sand bath) and two dietary treatments (finely and coarsely ground diets) in 24 boxes. Two broilers per box were experimentally infected with Enteritidis (8.00 log CFU/bird) at d 17. prevalence in caecal contents and the liver was highest in broilers housed on fully slatted floor until d 36/37 (88.1% and 91.5%, respectively), and lowest in litter flooring (caecal content 64.4%) and litter flooring with floor heating (liver 61.7%). In turn, broilers on littered flooring expressed the lowest counts in caecal content at d 36/37 (2.21 ± 1.75 log CFU/g), partial slatted flooring the highest (3.76 ± 1.46 log CFU/g). The mean count in the caecal content was significantly lower for birds fed a coarsely ground diet (0.96 and 1.94 log CFU/g) than a finely ground diet (5.07 and 3.34 log CFU/g) at d 23 and d 36/37, respectively ( < 0.0001). Slatted flooring with a sand bath did not show advantages in terms of reduction, whereas the coarsely ground diet markedly reduced the spread of .