Amanda Wolfenden

INTRODUCTION The intestinal epithelium constitutes the largest and most important barrier against external environmental agents and has two critical functions: to prevent the entry of harmful intraluminal microorganisms, antigens, and toxins, and to enable the selective translocation of dietary nutrients and electrolytes into circulation (Salminen and Isolauri, 2006; Salzman, 2011; Elson and Cong, ...

INTRODUCTIONIn the winter of 1959, the British cargo ship Rosetti, unloaded a shipment of peanut meal from Brazil to England, which was utilized as a protein supplement in the diets of poultry and other domestic animals. By summer of 1960, an outbreak of an unknown disease killed several species of poultry including turkeys, ducklings, and pheasants. In all, 500 cases were reported involving the d ...

INTRODUCTION The continuous tendency to reduce the use of antibiotic growth promoters (AGP) in poultry production, due to social concern about generation of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, has resulted in the crucial necessity to find economically viable alternatives that can maintain optimal health and performance parameters under commercial conditions (1, 2). One possible substitute for AGP that ...

INTRODUCTIONFluoroquinolones are the third generation of quinolone development. Nalidixic acid and pipemidic acid are examples of the first generation and currently have limited activity against Gram-negative bacteria. Fluorinated 4-quinolones were introduced to the market in the 1980s and were the top of the line antibiotics, offering a broad spectrum of activity and high efficacy in a wide range ...

1. IntroductionAflatoxins are naturally occurring mycotoxins that are produced by some strains of Aspergillus species which are commonly found in cereals worldwide and bring significant threats to the food industry and animal production [1]. At least 14 different types of aflatoxins are produced in nature [2,3]. Aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) is considered the most toxic and is produced by both Aspergillus&n ...

IntroductionIt is well known that antibiotic growth promoters (AGP) can improve production performance in birds (1) although the exact mode of action is still not completely understood. According to (2), a major hypothesis about the action of AGP is through the reduction of innate inflammatory response in the gastrointestinal tract (GIT) of birds. Now that the use of AGP is discouraged in food ani ...

IntroductionNecrotic enteritis (NE) in broilers is a multi-factorial disease with severe economic implications (1). It is caused by type A strains of Clostridium perfringens that are specific to poultry with toxin types alpha and NetB (2, 3). Coccidia infections are the most common pre-requisite for NE to occur (4), however, dysbacteriosis associated with diet ingredients, changes in feed ration, ...