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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 #218194
Title: Evaluation of an experimental chlorate product as a pre-harvest feed supplement to reduce Salmonella in meat producing birds

Author
item Byrd Ii, James - Allen
item BURNHAM, M - JONES COUNTY JR COLLEGE
item McReynolds, Jackson
item Anderson, Robin
item Genovese, Kenneth - Ken
item Callaway, Todd
item KUBENA, L - USDA RETIRED
item Nisbet, David

Submitted to: Poultry Science
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 5/7/2008
Publication Date: 9/2/2008
Citation: Byrd II, J.A., Burnham, M.R., McReynolds, J.L., Anderson, R.C., Genovese, K.J., Callaway, T.R., Kubena, L.F., Nisbet, D.J. 2008. Evaluation of an experimental chlorate product as a pre-harvest feed supplement to reduce Salmonella in meat producing birds. Poultry Science. 87:1883-1888.

Interpretive Summary: Escherichia coli and Salmonella are important foodborne pathogens that cause potentially fatal disease in humans. These bacteria posess an enzyme that converts chlorate to chlorite that will build-up inside causing it to eventually die. Since this activity kills the bad bacteria, we tested and found that administering a chlorate product in the feed of chickens will significantly reduced gut concentrations of Salmonella. Chlorate provided in the feed to chickens did not affect how much body weight was gained or how much feed the chickens consumed to produce a pound of body weight. Chlorate added in chicken feed caused an increase of moisture in the pine tree shavings used as floor covering. The chlorate has been shown not to harm potentially beneficial bacteria. These results demonstrate that providing chlorate in the feed to chickens just before slaughter may be a way to reduce Salmonella concentrations which ultimately will help farmers and packing plant operators produce safer poultry products for human consumption.

Technical Abstract: A study was conducted to evaluate the effect of experimental chlorate product (ECP) feed supplementation on Salmonella Typhimurium (ST) in the crop and ceca of market-age broilers. In trial 1, 160 market-age broilers were randomly assigned to 8 treatment groups, and replicated twice, with 20 broilers per pen for 1 wk. Trial 2 used the same design, but used 80 market-age broilers with 10 broilers per pen. Dietary treatments were as follows: 1) control feed + double distilled drinking water (dd H2O); 2) control + 18.5% experimental carrier with dd H2O; 3-7) control feed supplemented with 0.5, 1.0, 5.0, 10.0, or 18.5% of a feed grade ECP + dd H2O; 8) control feed + 1x ECP (containing 15mM chlorate ion equivalent) added to dd H2O. Broilers were provided experimental treatments for 7 days, euthanized, and than ceca and crops were removed and evaluated for ST. Water consumption, body weight gain, feed conversion, mortality, and litter moisture were measured. Broilers fed 5-18.5% ECP (36-38%) or water ECP (14%) had a significantly lower (P< 0.05) incidence of ST in the crop when compared to the control (60%). Interestingly, broilers fed 10% ECP (1.03 log10 ST) or water ECP (0.38 log10 ST) had significantly lower ST crop concentrations when compared to broilers fed a control diet (1.54 log10 ST). Crop and ceca ST incidence (32-64%) and concentration (1.00-2.37 log10 ST) were significantly lower in broilers fed 5-18.5% ECP or water ECP as compared to the control (78%; 2.84 log10 ST). Broilers fed 5% or greater ECP had significantly higher water consumption (380-580 mls water/d) and litter moisture (31-56%) when compared to the control (370 mL water/d; 23% moisture). No significant differences were observed in mortality or feed conversion. Only broilers fed 18% ECP had significantly lower 7-wk body weight (2.77 kg BW) when compared to the controls (3.09 kg BW). Average daily gains were significantly depressed in broilers fed 10 or 18.5% ECP compared to the controls. These results indicate broilers supplemented with feed or water ECP 7 d prior to slaughter effectively reduced ST without affecting growth parameters.