Aves, Pesca e Ciências da Vida Selvagem
Acesso livre

Abstrato

The Effects of Sulfadimethoxine Administered to Control Campylobacter jejuni in Small-Scale Broiler Operations

Tangkham W, Janes M and LeMieux F

Campylobacter jejuni causes human foodborne gastroenteritis known as campylobacteriosis. Antimicrobial therapy could be a potentially important tool in reducing the prevalence of C. jejuni in poultry. The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of sulfadimethoxine antibiotic on the prevalence of C. jejuni in growing broilers. Day-old broilers (n= 600) were allotted to two treatments 1) control (drinking water only) and 2) antibiotic (drinking water + 0.05% (wt/vol) sulfadimethoxine) with two replications. Each week, fecal samples were collected from individual chickens (n=300). All samples were plated on modified charcoal-cefoperazone-deoxycholate agar (mCCDA) to determine the log CFU/g and prevalence (%) of Campylobacter spp. Isolation of C. jejuni was verified with latex agglutination and hippurate hydrolysis test. Over the six week period, the bacterial counts of Campylobacter spp. in the antibiotic treatment (5.12 log CFU/broiler) were significantly lower (P<0.05) than in the control treatment (6.05 log CFU/broiler). Additionally, the prevalence of C. jejuni in the antibiotic treatment (50.0%) was significantly lower (P<0.05) than in the control treatment (56.0%). Our findings suggest that the antibiotic sulfadimethoxine may aid in reducing Campylobacter spp. and the prevalence on both Campylobacter spp. and C. jejuni in growing broilers.