IPPE - International Production & Processing Expo 2017

The potential of feeding a blend of three strains of Bacillus subtilis (SPORULIN® - SPR) on gut microbiota changes was evaluated in broilers challenged with a strain of Salmonella Heidelberg (SH) isolated in Brazil. Intestinal samples were collected at 21d of age from birds randomly submitted to 4 treatments and 4 replicates of 12 chicks each: T1) Negative control (NC), T2) SH- challenged birds (SHC), T3) SHC fed 250g of SPR/ton, T4) SHC fed 500g of SPR/ton. At 3d of age, half birds from groups T2, T3 and T4, were orally challenged with 107 CFU/chick of SH. Ileum and cecum contents from 12 birds ([U1] for T2, T3 and T4) were frozen in liquid nitrogen and stored at -80ºC. Genomic DNA was purified and pooled to form 4 replicates per treatment. In order to characterize the most abundant bacterial communities, V3 and V4 region of 16S rRNA gene were amplified and sequenced using Illumina MiSeq platform. Bacteria with abundance higher than 1%, Salmonella sp., Bacillus sp. and ecological indexes were analyzed by ANOVA and Tukey test at P≤0.05. As expected, microbiota analysis presented a high coefficient of variation illustrating the difficulties in establishing statistical differences when studying changes in bacterial populations, and the need for greater replication. From the 16S rDNA library, an unidentified member (U.m.) from RF39 order in cecum, U.m. of Enterococcus genus and U.m. of Streptophyta order in ileum showed significant changes (P<0.05) among treatments. Salmonella was absent from the ileum but present at the cecum. Feeding 250 or 500g/ton of SPR significantly reduced the requency of Salmonella in cecum, while feeding SPR T 500G/TON INCREASED Bacillus spp in ileum. Results on ecological indexes showed that SPR 500g/ton group presented a more diverse microbiota (Shannon-Wiener index) (p<0.05) compared to NC and SHC, while SPR 250g/ton improved richness (JackkNife index) compared ot NC. Evenness test (Hill) revealed that SPR 500g/ton tended (P=0.08) to promote higher microbiota heterogeneity than SHC group. SPR at both dosages showed equivalent cecum Salmonella sp. abundance in relation to NC and a significant reduction (P<0.01) regarding SHC group. Ileum Bacillus sp. abundance increased (P<0.01) compared to SHC when SPR was added at 250 or 500g/ton. In summary, SPR was effective in reducing Salmonella in cecum at 250 or 500g/ton, and promotes positive alterations in gut microbiota resulting in a more stable ecosystem which is by itself correlated with better gut health.

Key Words: Bacillus subtilis, Salmonella, Broilers, Gut health, Gut microbiota.

Wooden breast (WB) is a degenerative myopathy which could be associated with increased hypoxia as well as oxidative stress, intracellular calcium imbalance, and fiber-type switching. A 59d broiler study was conducted to determine the effects of synthetic antioxidant {SANTOQUIN ®M6 with 66.6% Ethoxyquin (ETX)} along with Vit-E &C on incidence of severe category Wooden breast (WB) and other tissue changes. Day old YPM x 708 male chicks ( n=1188; 11chicks/pen; 18pens/treatment) were randomly assigned to 6 treatments: fresh fat without ETX (T1) or with ETX (T2), and oxidized fat without ETX (T3), with 125ppm ETX (T4), with 180IU/ kg diet Vit-E &200ppm Vit-C (T5), and with Vit-E &C, and ETX (T6). For T3 to T6 diets, oxidized soy oil was added to get to 5meq peroxide/ kg in the starter and 7meq peroxide/kg in the grower and finisher diets. The study was carried out as RCBD and data were analyzed with 2 sets of factorial designs: T1 to T4 (fat sources/ ETX levels); T3 to T6 (ETX/ Vitamins). In addition to severe WB incidence, plasma lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) and raw meat (10d of refrigerated storage) thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) levels were determined indicating tissue damage and lipid peroxidation (LP), respectively. For T1 to T4, no interaction (P>0.05) was observed for fat sources and ETX on TBARS, and LDH. Interaction was observed for WB (P=0.02) indicating birds fed oxidized fat with ETX (T4) reduced the severe WB incidence by 14 percentage points compared to birds fed oxidized fat with no ETX (T3). The main effects indicated that feeding oxidized fat increased TBARS (P=0.08), and LDH (P0.05) was observed for ETX and vitamins on TBARS, LDH, and WB. The main effects for ETX indicated reduction (P<0.05) of TBARS and LDH while vitamins indicated tendency to reduce LDH (P=0.08) but not for TBARS (P=0.42). Overall, feeding oxidized fat appears to be a contributing factor for increased muscle LP, tissue damage and WB. ETX reduced severity of WB, LP, and tissue damage while vitamins E&C reduced severity of WB and tissue damage.

Key Words: Antioxidant, Wooden Breast, Santoquin, Vit-E &C.

Government regulation, along with consumer pressure, is driving US poultry production toward Antibiotic Growth Promoter (AGP) free production in a rapid pace. Nutrition program including feed additives will need to be an integral part of any AGP free production. A floor pen study was conducted with 1320 day-old male broilers to evaluate the efficacy of protease, essential oil, and organic acid in alleviating the negative impact of mild Eimeria challenge on growth performance and gut health in comparison to Bacitracin Methylene Disalicylate (BMD®). The study consisted of 5 dietary treatments – Negative Control (NC), NC+organic acid (ACIDOMATRIXTM GH), NC+essential oil (NEXT ENHANCE® 150), NC+protease (CIBENZA® DP100), and NC+BMD, each with 12 replicate pens of 22 birds. Nutritionally complete typical US corn soybean meal based broiler diets were formulated for starter (0-14 d), grower (14-29 d), and finisher (29-42 d) phases. All diets were pelleted, and starter diet was crumbled after pelleting. All birds were orally gavaged with a coccidiosis vaccine at 5X the recommended dose on d 15. Body weight, feed intake, FCR, and mortality were determined at d 14, 21, 29, and 42. On d 30, three birds per pen were euthanized to measure concentrations of serum endotoxin, IL 1β, IL 6, IL 10, α1 acid glycoprotein, and yellowness. Data were subject to one-way ANOVA; means were separated by Fisher’s protected LSD test. A P-Value ≤ 0.05 was considered statistically different. Increase in BW was observed for organic acid (21 d), protease and essential oil (29 d), and BMD (21 and 29 d). Essential oil and BMD reduced 0-29 d mortality. Protease and essential oil decreased serum endotoxin and IL 10 concentrations, and increased serum yellowness. Similarly, BMD also reduced serum endotoxin and IL 10 levels; however, it had no effect on serum yellowness. Organic acid only reduced serum IL 10 concentration. In summary, in broilers under mild Eimeria challenge, protease, essential oil, and organic acid improved growth performance and gut health, especially protease and essential oil effects were comparable to BMD. Therefore, these feed additives could be effective nutritional tools to manage gut health challenge and improve growth performance of broilers in AGP free production.

Key Words: protease, essential oil, organic acid, broiler, antibiotic.

A battery trial was conducted to evaluate the dose-response of two phytase products (Phytase A: CIBENZA® PHYTAVERSE®, Novus International Inc. and Phytase B: modified E. coli phytase) on growth performance, bone ash and mineral digestibility in broilers fed corn soy based diets with 4% rice bran. Diets were offered in crumbled form. The study consisted of 10 dietary treatments including a positive control (PC) with 0.45% NPP and 0.93% Ca, and a negative control (NC) with 0.30% NPP and 0.78% Ca. Phytase products were added to NC at 0, 250, 500, 1000 and 2000 U/kg. Each treatment had 7 replicate pens of 8 male broilers. Body weight, feed intake, FCR and mortality were determined at 17 d. On d 18 right tibias from 6 birds/cage and ileum content from all birds/cage were collected. Tibias were analyzed for ash concentration, and ileum content was used for mineral digestibility calculations. Data were analyzed with one-way ANOVA and orthogonal polynomial contrasts were used to test the linear and quadratic effects of phytase, a P-value ≤ 0.05 was considered significantly different. Reduction of NPP and Ca decreased Weight gain (0.709 vs. 0.573 kg; 21.2%), bone ash % (52.6 vs. 43.0%) and P digestibility (54.3 vs. 49.9%). Weight gain was clearly improved by phytase supplementation (P<0.0001), both enzymes showed a quadratic response (P<0.0001). Wt gain was similar between both products at all doses, except for 250 U/kg in which Phytase A showed a greater Wt gain compared to Phytase B (0.684 vs. 0.644kg). Bone ash % and amount of ash per bone were improved by phytase supplementation (P<0.0001), and both enzymes responded quadratically (P<0.0001). Interestingly, P digestibility was affected by phytase supplementation (P<0.0001), and responded in a linear manner (P<0.0001). Phytase levels beyond 500 U/kg of both enzymes outperformed PC. In summary, both phytases showed a similar dose response for performance, bone and P digestibility, except for an advantage of 250 U/g of Phytase A vs. Phytase B in Wt gain. P digestibility responded in a different way than performance and bone ash.

Key Words: Bone Ash, P digestibility, Performance, Phytase.

Two floor-pen trials tested the effect of feeding Zn from MINTREX® Zn on performance, carcass and meat quality traits of male broilers from 1 to 42d, and MINTREX® Zn differential response when compared to ZnSO4. A total of 1,080 and 1,620 Cobb 500 d-old cockerels were allotted to 9 reps of 24 or 20 birds in trials 1 (E1) and 2 (E2), respectively. Five treatment levels of Zn (0, 16, 32, 64 and 128ppm) were fed from MINTREX® Zn only for E1, or from either MINTREX® Zn or ZnSO4 in a factorial 2 (Source) x 4 (levels) + Negative Control to test the differential Zn Source response for E2. Birds were fed isonutritional corn-SBM-PBM (E1) or corn-SBM with 500 FTUs of phytase (E2) diets across treatments except for Zn which was further added accordingly. Pens had reused litter and feeder space as in the field. Birds were vaccinated with Newcastle, IBD and Marek as used locally. ANOVA, Tukey test and regression analyses were used. Qualitative parameters and lesions (%) were analyzed by Kruskal-Wallis test. In E1, BWG, FCR and production efficiency (EPI) improved when adding MINTREX® Zn showing a cubic effect (P<0.05) and reaching optimal performance at 39, 35 and 37 ppms of added Zn, respectively; and carcass and breast (g) improved and scratches and bruises incidence dropped (P<0.05). In E2, BWG, FCR and EPI improved when adding Zn. Still, birds showed greater BWG (3.007 vs 3.049 kg P <0.05), and EPI (432 vs. 448; P<0.005), when fed MINTREX® Zn rather than ZnSO4, while FCR was not different (1.577 vs 1.563 for MINTREX® Zn and ZnSO4 respectively; P=0.19). Optimum Zn levels were achieved at 35, 38 and 37 ppms for MINTREX® Zn; and at 41, 43 and 41 ppms of Zn from ZnSO4 for BWG, FCR and EPI, respectively. Increasing Zn from ZnSO4 beyond the aforementioned levels did not compensate for its presumed lower bioefficacy resulting in 42g and 17 points loss in BWG and EPI vs. MINTREX® Zn, respectively. In conclusion, aside from improving carcass and meat quality traits of broilers fed practical diets formulated with practical ingredients, MINTREX® Zn can improve live performance above that obtained with ZnSO4. In spite of E1 and E2 having 0 or 500 FTUs of phytase, respectively, optimal Zn levels from MINTREX® Zn calculated for performance traits were very close in both trials.

Key Words: Mintrex Zn, Broilers, Zinc Requirements, Carcass, Meat Quality.

Two floor-pen trials studied the effect of feeding Cu at different levels either from MINTREX® Cu or from CuSO4 on broilers form 1 to 42d of age. A total of 3,000 and 2,800 Ross 500 day-old non sexed chicks were used in trial 1 (E1) and 2 (E2), respectively. In both trials, birds were randomly distributed into 6 treatments with 5 pens of 100 birds (E1) and 9 or 10 reps of 50 broilers (E2). Six dietary treatments consisted of 3 levels of Cu (10, 30 or 120ppm) x 2 Cu sources (MINTREX® Cu- or CuSO4) arranged in a factorial design. Broilers were fed corn-SBM-wheat bran-DDGS iso-nutritional based diets designed to have a commercial nutrient density across treatments except for added Cu levels. Phytase was used at 0 or 500 FTU´s for E1 and E2, respectively. In both trials, pens had reused litter, commercial feeder space allowances and birds were vaccinated against Newcastle disease. The cell-mediated immune response was examined by cutaneous basophilic hypersensitivity test in E1 using intradermic inoculation of phytohemagglutinin. Performance (42d) of both trials was analyzed together in a combined mixed model. For each combined analysis, trial was defined as random. The linear, quadratic and source intercept terms were considered fixed effects. BIC was used as criteria to select the regression model that better describes the data based on goodness of fit. For immune response (E1) and carcass yield (E2), ANOVA and Tukey test were performed. There was no interaction between factors for any performance parameter tested. The interdigital thickness was greater for MINTREX® Cu vs CuSO4 at all levels indicating a stronger cell mediated immune response (P< 0.001). For BWG the average source values across levels for MINTREX® Cu vs CuSO4 were different at P = 0.07. The best fit equation (linear for both sources) predicted better BWG (+32g/bird) FCR (-0.032 points) and EPI (8.4 points) with MINTREX® Cu over CuSO4 (P = 0.04) across all levels, and the comparison between predicted BWG, FCR and EPI values at level 10, 30 and 120 ppm were significantly better for MINTREX® vs. CuSO4 at every level (P < 0.05). Overall, MINTREX® Cu optimized performance over CuSO4 while optimal levels of added chelated Cu were achieved at 30 or 120 ppms.

Key Words: Mintrex Cu, Copper, Broilers, Cu requirements, Growth promoter.