Efficacy of Bio-Mos® and Acid-Pak-4-Way™ as alternatives to AGPs in broilers challenged with 'Clostridium perfringens'

Abstract

A significant threat to the broiler industry worldwide is the sporadic outbreak of necrotic enteritis (NE). The ban of antibiotic growth promoters (AGP) in many countries worldwide has forced the poultry industry to search for alternative measures to control the disease. In this study, the effectiveness of two non-antibiotic feed additives (mannan-oligosaccharides (MOS, Bio-Mos®, Alltech Inc. USA) and acidifier (ACID, Acid Pak 4-Way™, Alltech Inc. USA) alone or in combination to control subclinical Clostridial enteritis in broilers were investigated using a NE challenge model. The effects of these supplements were evaluated against a negative control (no additives) and a positive control (with monensin and Zn-Bacitracin). The positive control birds had a numerically higher bodyweight (P>0.05) and significantly (P<0.05) lower FCR compared to the negative control birds. The addition of MOS had a marked beneficial effect (P<0.05) on FCR as well as the relative weight of the spleen. However, there were no further improvements when the MOS was added in combination with the ACID.