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ARS Home » Plains Area » College Station, Texas » Southern Plains Agricultural Research Center » Food and Feed Safety Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #161980
Title: THE USE OF BIODEGRADABLE PELLETS FOR THE CONTROL OF SALMONELLA IN BROILERS DURING FEED WITHDRAWAL

Author
item Byrd Ii, James - Allen
item Stanker, Larry
item McReynolds, Jackson
item Nisbet, David

Submitted to: Poultry Science Association Meeting Abstract
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 4/15/2004
Publication Date: 7/25/2004
Citation: Byrd II, J.A., Stanker, L.H., McReynolds, J.L., Nisbet, D.J. 2004. The use of biodegradable pellets for the control of Salmonella in broilers during feed withdrawal [abstract]. Poultry Science. 83(Suppl. 1):103.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Poultry undergo a feed withdrawal (FW) prior to transport to the processing plant. During FW, poultry tend to peck at floor litter that may be contaminated with Salmonella and Campylobacter. These pathogens could be transported to the processing plant in the upper gastrointestinal of poultry which may leak out during slaughter and cross contaminate other carcasses. One approach would be to supply a disinfectant and another source of nutrition that would not physically fill the upper gastrointestinal tract. Presently, we evaluated the use of a novel biodegradable starch extruded pellet (BP) that can be treated with bactericidal or bacteristatic compounds. The BP was provided to market-age broilers during an 8 h FW. All broilers were challenged with 108 Salmonella typhimurium (ST) by oral gavage 6 days prior to FW. One h after the onset of FW, 454 g of BP containing either 2% lactic acid (LA), citric acid (CA), or D-limonene + CA + diosulfosuccinate (DSS), were placed on the litter in each pen. In two experiments, broilers provided BP containing LA caused a significant decrease (P < 0.05) in the incidence of ST in crop contents (40%) as compared to the controls (65%). Similarly, broilers provided BP containing LA (0.8 Log10 ST /g crop content) caused a significant decrease (P < 0.05) in the number of ST recovered in the crop compared to controls (1.87 Log10 ST). The material is environmentally compatible and will degrade in poultry grow-out houses thus providing beneficial bacteria a food source without physically filling the gastrointestinal tract. These studies suggest that incorporation of this biodegradable material in the broiler grow-out house during pre-transport feed withdrawal may reduce Salmonella and Campylobacter contamination of crops and broiler carcasses at processing.