CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

Fowl typhoid is caused by Salmonella Gallinarum biotype gallinarum (S. gallinarum) and may leadto important economic loses in the global poultry industry, mainly due to mortality (from 10% to100%) and drop of egg production in laying hens. The disease has been officially eradicated fromcommercial poultry in many developed countries, but still subsists as an endemic infection in mostdeveloping countries and non-commercial farms. Antimicrobial treatments are commonly used toreduce mortality but it is unlikely that treatment will completely eliminate fowl typhoid from an infectedflock. Furthermore, in the last years augmented resistance of S. gallinarum strains for some antibioticscommonly administered has been observed. In this work, the use of chestnut extracts as an alternativeto prevent or treat fowl typhoid was assessed. Sixteen-week-old laying hens were divided in threegroups of 14 birds each. Hens from control group received commercial feed and hens from treatedgroups received normal feed plus 5 ppm of chestnut extract from 24 h before infection onwards(Group 1) or from 24 h after infection onwards (Group 2). All hens were orally challenged with106 CFU of S. gallinarum and mortality was recorded for 10 days. Seventy-one percent (10/14)of the hens died from fowl typhoid in the control group. In the treated groups, mortality was of36% (5/14) in Group 1 and of 50% (7/14) in Group 2. Reduction of the mortality was significantin the Group 1 (P= 0.0465) but not in Group 2 (P= 0.1886). Thus chestnut extracts may be usefulto prevent fowl typhoid in the flocks, although once the animals are infected, the additive may notbe completely efficient to reduce mortality. Combined strategies such as preventive feed additives,vaccination and biosecurity measures seems to be the most likely approach to improve the control offowl typhoid and may help to eradicate the disease from countries where it is endemic.

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