Abstract

COMPARATIVE EFICACY OF TWO ORAL BACITRACIN PREMIX (ALBAC® AND BACITOWERVET®) AGAINST EXPERIMENTAL INFECTION WITH CLOSTRIDIUM PERFRINGENS IN CHICKENS

Ashraf El-Komy and Mohamed Aboubakr*

ABSTRACT

This study was conducted to assess the efficacy of bacitracin (Albac® and Bacitowervet®) in controlling the adverse effects of experimentally induced Clostridium perfringens in broiler chickens. Two hundred, one-day old broiler chicken chicks were used and randomly allocated into three experimental groups; group (1) uninfected-untreated, group (2) infected-untreated, group (3) infected-treated with bacitracin (Albac®) in feed and group (4) infected-treated with bacitracin (Bacitowervet®) in the feed. The drug was given at dose level of 50 mg bacitracin/kg diet for 5 consecutive days. The birds were challenged via oral gavages with a toxigenic strain of Clostridium Perfringens type A by inoculation of 1 ml of 6x108 cfu daily, for 3 consecutive days (19th, 20th, 21st days of age). Clinical signs, mortalities, mean lesion scores, performance including body weight and feed conversion efficiency were recorded and evaluated. The Results showed that infected-bacitracin treated chickens had less pronounced clinical signs, significant lower mortalities, higher body weight and better feed conversion than infected-untreated birds. In conclusion, bacitracin (Albac® and Bacitowervet®) was efficacious for the treatment of Clostridium Perfringens infection in broiler chickens evident by improvement of all investigated parameters, and there was no significant change between Albac® and Bacitowervet® and both products can be used as interchangeable drug in veterinary medicine practice especially in poultry.

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