Abstract
Background: One of the most important foodborne pathogen which causes enteritis is Salmonella
enteritidis (SE). Human cases are mostly associated with the consumption of eggs and poultry
meat.
Objective: An experiment has been carried out to evaluate the impacts of a yeast product as liquid
prebiotic on bacterial shedding, performance indices, and some breast meat characteristics of
broiler chickens challenged with SE.
Materials and Methods: A total of 90 one-day-old male broiler chicks (Ross 308) were randomly
assigned to three different groups with three replicates for each treatment. The treatments were
as follows: (1) CONT: birds were not challenged, (2) SE: birds were challenged with SE and fed
with a control diet without prebiotic, and (3) SE+PREB: birds were challenged with SE and fed
with liquid prebiotic. The challenge with SE was performed on birds in groups 2 and 3 at 28
days of age. Performance parameters and Salmonella shedding were determined on days 7 and
14 post infection. Twelve birds per treatment were sampled at the end of the trial for evaluating
characteristics of breast meat.
Results: The challenged birds which received prebiotic showed significantly higher body weight
gain, lower feed intake, and lower SE shedding than SE group (P<0.05). No significant differences
were seen in meat characteristics.
Conclusion: Prebiotics can have beneficial effects even if they are used in the diet at an unusual
time. The supplementation of yeast product can improve some performance parameters and
reduce bacterial shedding in SE challenged chicken.