Effect of cimenol ring in broilers challenged with Clostridium perfringens:
Analysis of productive performance

Introduction

Clostridium perfringens is the causal agent of necrotic enteritis, a highly prevalent and economically relevant disease in poultry production worldwide.

The trial described below evaluated the efficacy of the cimenol ring against this pathogen in challenged broiler chickens. Cimenol ring is an aromatic molecule from plants that has strong bactericidal and fungicidal effects against pathogenic microorganisms. It acts synergistically with citric acid and the combination works as a preservative for feed and raw materials, and to maintain the balance of the gut microflora.

Aim of the trial

In a trial conducted in an experimental farm of the Universidad Científica del Sur (Lima, Peru), cimenol ring’s bactericidal efficacy against Clostridium perfringens was evaluated in experimentally challenged broilers.

Materials and methods

504 one-day-old broilers (Cobb 500) were distributed into 4 treatment groups (126 birds/group) in a Completely Randomized Trial Design. There were 7 replicates per group and a total of 28 experimental units, with 18 birds each. The trial lasted for 42 days (from day 1 of age until slaughter).

Treatment groups

• (T1) Negative control: healthy birds fed a standard basal diet (SBD).
• (T2) Infected control: infected birds fed a SBD.
• (T3) Cimenol prevention: infected birds fed a SBD with a combination of cimenol ring with citric acid at 0.5 kg/t in the feed, continuously during all the trial.
• (T4) Cimenol treatment: infected birds fed a SBD. Inclusion at 1 ml/l of a combination of cimenol ring and citric acid for 7 days continuously after the first signs of necrotic enteritis.

Challenge

10⁸ CFU/bird of Clostridium perfringens were administered in the drinking water of birds in groups T2, T3 and T4 on days 19, 20 and 21 of age.

Statistical analysis

Data were processed and analyzed with normality, homogeneity, variance and ANOVA tests and Tukey test to compare means following the GLM procedure of SAS 9.1 (SAS Institute, 2003). P value below 0.05 was considered for statistical differences. Different letter within a column in the tables below mean that values are statistically different.

Results

• Groups supplemented with cimenol ring (prevention and treatment) achieved better final weights (P<0.05) than the other groups, despite the challenge. It got improved by 293 g/bird in the prevention and 139 g/bird in the treatment, compared with the positive control group. In addition, the group with cimenol ring as a prevention obtained the best weight, which was significantly higher than the rest.
• Cimenol as a prevention obtained the best daily weight gains (DGW), with significant differences compared to the other infected groups, and even better than the negative control. Cimenol ring as a treatment achieved higher DWG than the infected control and therefore effective to reduce the impact of the disease.

• Feed intake was significantly lower in the infected control as a consequence of necrotic enteritis. On the contrary, the groups with cimenol did not show this decrease in feed intake.
• On day 21 (post-infection and before start with the treatment), feed conversion was significantly worse in infected and cimenol treatment groups. This worsening was not observed in cimenol prevention and was 9,2% better than the infected control and 6,1% better than the negative control.
• At the end of the trial, cimenol as a treatment obtained better feed conversion than the infected control (8,7% improvement), despite it was worse than the negative control

• Cimenol, whether as a prevention or treatment, decreased mortality by 87.5 and 62.5% compared to the positive control, respectively. Moreover, prevention obtained lower mortality rates than the negative control, despite the challenge, probably because of a better balance of the digestive flora.
• Cimenol as a prevention obtained the best uniformity (12% and 6% higher than the negative and infected controls, respectively), while as a treatment the improvement was of 7.62% compared to the infected control.
• Carcass yield was clearly affected by the challenge since it decreased by 4% in the infected control. Despite this, cimenol prevention obtained better carcass yield than those of the infected control (+6.7%) and negative control (+6,6%). Differently, cimenol as a treatment obtained similar results to the infected control, which shows that animals did not fully counteract the negative impact of the infection.

Conclusions

The negative control obtained the normal parameters of the farm, while the infected control showed the consequences of the challenge with C. perfringens.

The cimenol ring as a prevention completely prevented the effects of the infection, as it obtained better productive parameters than the infected control, even better than healthy birds.

Cimenol ring as a treatment is also effective in ameliorating the consequences of the infection, as it obtained better weight, feed conversion, mortality, and uniformity than the infected control, despite it did not reach the parameters of healthy birds nor did it improve the carcass yield.

Ultimately, cimenol ring is an effective solution to prevent and treat necrotic enteritis caused by C. perfringens in broilers, whether in the feed (prevention) or in the drinking water for 7 days after the first signs of disease (treatment). Prevention is always preferable to treatment, as it obtains better results.

More information about this trial (microbiology, histopathology, and gut morphometry) here: Effect of cimenol ring in broilers challenged with Clostridium perfringens: Gut microbiological, histopathological and morphometrical analyses

The combination cimenol ring with citric acid is available in the market as Alquermold Natural, by Biovet S.A.