I would have wanted to see a third treatment: a negative control without the clay and the antibiotic. Dont you think?
Also, although I am sure much more controversial ( and i understand there are arguments against): I would have wanted animales to be fed to an equal intake ( although consdering the sample size and the traditional feeding practices (in most countries, not all) this seems difficult).
Very good informative article on clay. Yes indeed this substance can be used in poultry feed
Several research articles have been published.
Here is an article carried in our university :
http://usab-tm.ro/utilizatori/dse/file/2011/bjb_vol3/01%20Ouachem%20Derradji.pdf
Dear : I think the global tend is to find alternative way to antibiotics which used as a feed additives like avilamycin , vancomycin , lincomycin and I read many of articles about the same subject using organic acid as a growth promoting , at the same time we use organic acids in drinking water to control the disorder of the gut we found very good resluts.
Thx 4 ur efforts
Dr yahia sumiaat
To Sergio Velez: a third group would have been probably better, you're right; but it was a field study with a customer and only 2 treatments were possible. We have divided the buildings into 2 groups and fed animals as usual=ad lib. But we have done other trials in research centers with more treatments that show the same trend as this trial (in comparison with antibiotics growth promoters).
B-SAFE is a clay activated by copper. Copper has an antimicrobial activity which is potentialized by the localisation of the copper at the surface of the clay. A very low level of copper is enough to have antimicrobial activity of B-SAFE because of its patented process. We have now backep up this product for 10 years and we have a lot of trials, in-vitro and in-vivo which show B-SAFE efficacy on the modulation of gut flora, height of villosities and thus on zootechnical performances.
B-SAFE can be added to organic acids or replace them, each breeding situation must be evaluated.
To S.M.A. Halim: B-SAFE has shown in-vitro antimicrobial activity against Clostridium perfringens and Clostridium sporogenes. In-vivo, B-SAFE is very often used to fight against wet litter due to digestive disorders and gut flora imbalance.
To Dr Dhar: in this mexican trial, no evaluation of the gut flora was done but some animals were evaluated by Elanco method to make a scoring of intestinal integrity : lesions of the different parts of the gut,...
This trial was published at Alternatives to Antibiotics symposium, last september in Paris.
Thank you for your comments!
Marie-Laurence LE RAY, product manager of B-SAFE
It is very difficult to be use B-Safe inclusion level regarding age of birds.
In this trial it was possible to change B-SAFE inclusion level and we know that it is more benefic for animals' gut flora to vary B-SAFE concentration. But some of our customers prefer using B-SAFE at a fixed level during all the breeding period and it works too. It depends on your facilities and your objectives.