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Necrotic enteritis; current knowledge and diet-related mitigation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 March 2017

L.J. BROOM
L.J. BROOM*
Affiliation:
Anpario PLC, Manton Wood Enterprise Park, Worksop, Nottinghamshire, S80 2RS, United Kingdom;Faculty of Biological Sciences, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, United Kingdom
*
Corresponding author: leon.broom@anpario.com
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Abstract

Necrotic enteritis (NE) has become one of the most important diseases of modern global poultry production, with an estimated cost of around US$6 billion per annum in lost production and control strategies. The rise in prominence of NE is attributed to the prohibition of antibiotics as growth promoters (AGP) or the voluntary implementation of ‘drug-free’ broiler production programmes. Pathogenic strains of Clostridium perfringens are responsible for NE, with those expressing the NetB toxin a definitive cause in disease models. C. perfringens are normal inhabitants of the gastrointestinal tract (GIT) but these are typically non-pathogenic strains. When intestinal health is compromised, the prevailing conditions allow the establishment and proliferation of pathogenic, toxin-secreting strains of C. perfringens. The toxin(s) damages the intestinal epithelium and causes disease. Certain dietary-related factors are recognised as predisposing poultry to NE. This review will focus on the key initiators of NE and will outline the most appropriate strategies to counteract these predisposing factors and prevent NE. The continual push, globally, for poultry production programmes with less antibiotic use will sustain NE as an important and costly poultry disease that requires dietary intervention.

Keywords

necrotic enteritisantibioticcoccidiosismycotoxinprotein
Type
Reviews
Information
World's Poultry Science Journal , Volume 73 , Issue 2 , June 2017 , pp. 281 - 292
Copyright
Copyright © World's Poultry Science Association 2017 

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