The link between fish meal, Eimeria and necrotic enteritis in broilers .

A Link between fish meal, Eimeria and necrotic enteritis in broilers has been explored by Australian scientists as reported in veterinary microbiology online. The research is based on the already established fact that a high-protein, fish meal-supplemented starter diet along with Eimeria infection can predispose birds to clinical necrotic enteritis after Clostridium perfringens infection. The scientists thus analyzed the cecal microbiota of four groups of broilers with the use of deep pyrosequencing — a method of DNA analysis. One group was infected with Eimeria and received a control diet, another received a fish meal-supplemented diet and a third group was infected with Eimeria and in addition received fish meal. A fourth group without Eimeria did not receive fish meal and served as a control. Fish meal had a strong effect on intestinal microbiota, similar to the reported effects of C. perfringens infection. The scientists also noted major changes in the prevalence of various lactobacilli, while total, culturable Lactobacillus counts remained stable. Other microbiota such as Ruminococcaceae were affected, as determined by an increased number of operational taxonomic units — a method of defining a species based on DNA sequence results. Eimeria induced different changes in microbiota. For example, Ruminococcaceae were reduced in number, and three unknown clostridium species increased in abundance. Eimeria did not significantly influence changes in measures such as pH or formic acid, while fish-meal induced dramatic changes. The result showed that fish meal feeding and Eimeria infection induced significant changes in the gut microbiota and this predisposes birds to necrotic enteritis.