Functional assessment of encapsulated citral for controlling necrotic enteritis in broiler chickens.
Development of viable alternatives to antibiotics to control necrotic enteritis (NE) caused by Clostridium perfringensis becoming urgent for chicken production due to pessures on poultry producers to limit or stop the use of antibiotics in feed. We have previously identified citral as a potential alternative to antibiotics. Citral has strong antimicrobial activity and can be encasupsulated in a powder form for protection from loss during feed processing, storage, and intestinal delivery. In the present study, encapsulated citral was evaluated both in vitro and in vivo for its antimicrobial activity against C. perfringens Encapsulation did not adversely affect the antimicrobial activity of citral. In addition, encapsulated citral was superior to the unencapsulated form in retaining its antimicrobial activity after treatment with simulated gastrointestinal fluids and in the presence of chicken intestinal digesta. In addition, the higher antimicrobial activity of encapsulated citral was confirmed in digesta samples from broilers that had been gavaged with encapsulated or unencapsulated citral. In broilers infected with C. perfringens, the diets supplemented with encapsualted citral at both 250 and 650 μg/g significantly reduced intestinal NE lesions, which was comparable to the effect of bacitracin- and salinomycin-containing diets. However, supplementation with the encapsulated citral appeared to have no significant impact on the intestinal burden of Lactobacillus These data indicate that citral can be used to control NE in chickens after proper protection by encapsulation.
['Yang|Yuexi|Y|', 'Wang|Qi|Q|', 'Diarra|Moussa S|MS|', 'Yu|Hai|H|', 'Hua|Yufei|Y|', 'Gong|Joshua|J|']
D000080462:Acyclic Monoterpenes D000821:Animal Feed D000818:Animals D002645:Chickens D003015:Clostridium Infections D003016:Clostridium perfringens D004032:Diet D019587:Dietary Supplements D004751:Enteritis D039821:Monoterpenes D009336:Necrosis D009822:Oils, Volatile D011201:Poultry Diseases
encapsulation citral necrotic enteritis broiler Clostridium perfringen