Bacillus strain fights Clostridial infections

At the 2009 Korean Society for Poultry Science Symposium, Dr Tan Hai Meng presented research on a novel strain of Bacillus subtilis PB6 to be used in poultry.

Kemin Industries research shows its novel Bacillus subtilis PB6 strain can be utilized to combat Clostridial infections in broilers. Necrotic enteritis (NE) is an enterotoxemic disease caused by Clostridium perfringens. Clostridial infections can lead to the development of necrotic lesions in the gut wall resulting in poor animal performance and mortality of poultry.

The Bacillus subtilis strain is incorporated into the product, CloSTAT®, and has been fed to broilers in numerous research trials. Significant reduction in both ileal and faecal populations of Clostridium spp. were found which confirm the in vitro anti-clostridial results. Additionally, the intestinal populations of beneficial bacteria such as Lactobacillus spp. and Bifidobacterium spp. were maintained with the product inclusions. During a research trial conducted in the US, the product was fed to broilers challenged with C. perfringens/Eimeria spp., over a 27-d period, to induce the condition of necrotic enteritis. The product, at all doses, proved as efficacious (P<0.05) in protecting the broilers against necrotic enteritis as the antibiotic BMD, and was not significantly different from uninfected positive controls.

In this trial, mortality due to necrotic enteritis of the BMD antibiotic birds was not significantly different from any of the product treatments. Birds fed the product had body weight gain and feed conversion ratios that were not significantly different (P<0.05) from those receiving the BMD antibiotic and the uninfected controls.