A Poultry Subclinical Necrotic Enteritis Disease Model Based on Natural Clostridium perfringens Uptake

• Published in: Frontiers in physiology 2022-06, Vol.13, p.788592-788592
• Main Authors: He, Wanwei, Goes, Emanuele C., Wakaruk, Jeremy, Barreda, Daniel R., Korver, Douglas R.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: broiler chicken; Clostridium perfringens; environment; natural infection model; necrotic enteritis; Physiology
• ISSN: 1664-042X; 1664-042X
• DOI: 10.3389/fphys.2022.788592

Necrotic enteritis (NE) in poultry is an opportunistic infection caused by Clostridium perfringens . Well-known as a multifactorial disease, NE development is under the influence of a wide range of environmental risk factors that promote the proliferation of pathogenic C. perfringens at the expense of nonpathogenic strains. Current in vivo NE challenge models typically incorporate pre-exposure to disease risk factors, in combination with exogenous C. perfringens inoculation. Our goal was to enhance current models using a natural uptake of C. perfringens from the barn environment to produce a subclinical infection. We incorporated access to litter, coccidial exposure (either 10× or 15× of the manufacturer-recommended Coccivac B52 Eimeria vaccine challenge; provided unspecified doses of E. acervulina, E. mivati, E. tenella , and two strains of E. maxima ), feed composition, and feed withdrawal stress, and achieved the commonly observed NE infection peak at 3 weeks post-hatch. NE severity was evaluated based on gut lesion pathology, clinical signs, and mortality rate. Under cage-reared conditions, 15× coccidial vaccine-challenged birds showed overall NE lesion prevalence that was 8-fold higher than 10× coccidial vaccine-challenged birds. NE-associated mortality was observed only in a floor-reared flock after a 15× coccidial vaccine challenge.