Intestinal microbiom in necrotic enteritis infection of broiler and comparison of treatment alternatives

Objective: The aim of this study is to determine the intestinal microbiome of chickens and to compare the effect of B. velezensis on intestinal microbiota and healing in cases of Necrotic Enteritis to antibiotic treatment. Materials and Methods: The study used five different groups of 16 chickens. The first group is the start-of-challenge (DB) group, which consists of 1-day-old chicks; the second group is the post-challenge control group (DS), which is reared until the end of the challenge; the third group is C. perfringens (NE) group; the fourth group is C. perfringens + B. velezensis (BV) group; and the fifth group is C. perfringens+ amoxicillin (AB) group. All groups were euthanized by cervical dislocation after the experimental infection. Following extraction, feces samples from the cecum were subjected to 16S rRNA gene-based metagenomic analysis. The collected data was statistically analyzed. Results: Pathological changes in the intestines of the chickens in the NE group given only C. perfringens were observed in the macroscopic examination performed after euthanasia. The intestines were found to be swollen and the mucosa to be slightly bleeding. There were no macroscopic findings in the start-of-challenge (DB), post-challenge control group (DS), C. perfringens + B. velezensis group (BV), or C. perfringens + amoxicillin group (AB). The abundance of the NE group microbiome dropped as a result of microbiome analysis; the microbiome that was closest to the microbiome of normal animals belonged to the BV group, followed by the AB group. Conclusion: It was concluded in this study that B. velezensis could be used instead of prophylactic antibiotics to reduce the negative effects of necrotic enteritis on the microbiome. Keywords: B. velezensis, Microbiome, Challenge, Broiler