TITLE:
Essential Oils as an Alternative to Antibiotics to Reduce the Incidence and Severity of Necrotic Enteritis in Broiler Chickens: A Short Review
AUTHORS:
Makenly E. Coles, Brittany D. Graham, Juan D. Latorre, Victor M. Petrone-Garcia, Xochitl Hernandez-Velasco, Inkar Castellanos-Huerta, Xiaolun Sun, Billy M. Hargis, Saeed El-Ashram, Awad A. Shehata, Guillermo Tellez-Isaias
KEYWORDS:
Necrotic Enteritis, Essential Oils, Chickens, Clostridium perfringens, Alternatives to Antibiotics
JOURNAL NAME:
Food and Nutrition Sciences,
Vol.14 No.3,
March
27,
2023
ABSTRACT: Due to
the removal of antibiotic growth promoters (AGPs) and consumer pressure for
antibiotic-free (ABF) or no antibiotics ever (NAE) poultry production, there is
a need for sustainable alternatives to prevent disease in commercial poultry
operations. Without AGPs, there has been a rise in diseases that were
traditionally controlled by subtherapeutic levels of antibiotics in the diet.
This has impacted the health of commercial poultry and has been a significant
cost to poultry producers. To mitigate this, the industry has started to
investigate alternatives to antibiotics to treat these forthcoming health
issues, such as necrotic enteritis (NE). NE is an enteric disease caused by an
over proliferation of toxigenic Clostridium
perfringens (CP) in the
gastrointestinal tract. Although CP is a commensal in the avian intestinal
tract, dysbiosis caused by inflammation and impaired intestinal integrity
facilitates uncontrolled replication of CP. Infectious agents, such as Eimeria maxima, appear to be a
predominant predisposing factor that promotes NE. However, non-infectious
stressors, including dietary changes, have also been associated with NE to some
degree. As a result of increased pressure to restrict the use of antibiotics,
there is a need for research evaluating the efficacy of alternatives, such as
plant-derived essential oils, as potential tools to mitigate NE in commercial
poultry flocks. The aim of this study is to review the effects of essential
oils as an alternative to antibiotics to reduce the incidence and severity of
necrotic enteritis in broiler chickens.