Production Layer Salmonella Enteritidis Control through Dry Fed Pre & Probiotic Products

ABSTRACT Increasing interest in multiple strain Bacillus probiotics and parietal yeast fractions as feed ingredients for egg laying hen diets has also led to food safety questions. This study was undertaken to evaluate the ability of these products to reduce Salmonella Enteritidis colonization. Sixty Hy-Line hens aged 56 weeks were placed in individual cages and fed a mash diet containing one of the following treatments, control, Bacillus spp. probiotic, yeast cell wall, or a combination of yeast cell wall and Bacillus probiotic. At 60 weeks of age all hens were challenged orally with 7 x 107 CFU/bird of Salmonella Enteritidis. At 61 weeks of age, birds were humanely euthanized, by cervical dislocation and the ceca aseptically removed and cultured for S. Enteritidis prevalence and number by the Most Probable Number method. There was no significant difference in prevalence of Salmonella Enteritidis between the control and any treatments. The control birds had 4.37 log10 MPN/g of S. Enteritidis detected in the ceca. The Probiotic group had 2.96 MPN/g, a reduction of 1.41(p<0.05) and the yeast cell wall group had 2.89 MPN/g a reduction of 1.48 (p<0.05). The combination had 3.60 MPN/g a numerical reduction of 0.78 (p=0.14). The yeast cell wall and Bacillus probiotic groups significantly reduced the amount of Salmonella Enteritidis in the ceca of the laying hens.