The role of dietary fibre and litter type on development of necrotic enteritis in broiler chickens challenged with 'Clostridium perfringens'

Abstract

Increased structural fibre in the diet and/or ingestion of hardwood litter have shown similar effects to coarse feedstuffs or feedstuffs containing coarse components such as whole grains, which can stimulate gizzard development. It is not clear whether increased dietary fibre and/or ingestion of hardwood litter can provide birds with a degree of protection when exposed to a 'Clostridium perfringens' strain known to induce necrotic enteritis (NE). In the present study, it was shown that dietary fibre and litter type had no effects on relative gizzard weight of birds measured at day 14 days of age. On the other hand, there were indications of an interaction between diet and litter type on gizzard weight at day 17. In birds raised on paper, those given a low fibre diet had smaller gizzards than those given a high fibre diet, whereas birds raised on hardwood were unaffected by dietary fibre. Meanwhile, dietary fibre and/or litter type altered the intestinal pH, short chain fatty acids (SCFA), and some microbial groups, but not the whole microbial community. It was concluded that, despite a degree of response to the treatments, no protection of birds from NE by high fibre diet and/or hardwood litter consumption was detected when the birds were subjected to 'C. perfringens' infection.