Use of a competitive exclusion product (Aviguard) to prevent Clostridium perfringens colonization in broiler chicken under induced challenge

The effect of aviguard (ag) on growth parameters,gut health and control of pathogenic colonization of broilers was examined under clostridium perfringens (c. perfringens) challenge. chicks (1-d old) received one of the following treatments: 1. positive control (cont): with no additions; 2. negative control + c. perfringens challenge (contcp); 3. coarse spray of ag at d 1 + c. perfringens challenge (agspray); or 4. ag in drinking water at d 8 + c. perfringens challenge (agwater). overall,feed conversion ratio (fcr) in treatment agwater was significantly better (p < 0.05) than the contcp or agspray treatments,whereas cont was intermediate and not different from agwater. the improvement in fcr was due to reduction in feed intake (fi) in agwater,while body weight gain (bwg) was not influenced by treatment. agwater was very effective in eliminating c. perfringens that was induced by necrotic enteritis infection model. the changes in c. perfringens count appear in parallel to observed changes in villi width in the small intestine. the results from this study indicated that agwater can be considered as an effective nonantibiotic alternative for c. perfringens prevention in broilers. copyright 2013 zoological society of pakistan.