Temporal effects of lactic acid bacteria probiotic culture on Salmonella in neonatal broilers

We evaluated the ability of a commercially available lactic acid bacteria-based probiotic culture (LAB) to reduce Salmonella Enteritidis or Salmonella Typhimurium in day-of-hatch broiler chicks. In these experiments, chicks were challenged with Salmonella Enteritidis or Salmonella Typhimurium and treated with LAB 1-h postchallenge. Following treatment, cecal tonsils and ceca were aseptically collected for Salmonella Enteritidis or Salmonella Typhimurium enrichment or Salmonella Enteritidis enumeration, respectively. In experiments 1 to 3, LAB significantly reduced the incidence of Salmonella Enteritidis (60 to 70% reduction) or Salmonella Typhimurium (89 to 95% reduction) recovered from the cecal tonsils of day-old broiler chicks 24 h following treatment as compared with controls (P < 0.05). Additionally, administration of LAB caused a > 2.9 log(10) reduction of total cecal Salmonella Enteritidis recovered 24 h following treatment as compared with controls (P < 0.05). In experiments 4 to 7, upon sample enrichment LAB significantly reduced the recovery of Salmonella Enteritidis from the cecal tonsils at 24 h, but not 6 or 12 h posttreatment (P < 0.05). However, in experiments 6 and 7, when total cecal Salmonella Enteritidis recovery was enumerated, a significant treatment-associated reduction was observed 12 h posttreatment, although in cecal tonsil samples there was no difference in Salmonella Enteritidis incidence at 12 h (P < 0.05). In these studies, LAB treatment significantly reduced recovery of Salmonella in day-of-hatch broilers.