TDK conference 2017

As antibiotic resistance is a serious problem in the food animal practice, new alternatives to antibiotics are continously pursued. The usage of pre- and probiotics and certain acidifiers could bring a solution on the field of prevention and treatment. During our experiment the administration of two carboxylic acids in their protected, triglycerid forms were investigated.

Eight equal groups from day-old animals (n=96) were formed. During the first two weeks, feeding of all three groups were the same. We have registered the feed-consumption and the weight-gain of the different groups from day 15. The reference feed cointained the aforementioned formic acid and propinonic acid. The examined product contained the same organic acids just in a triglycerid form. The effects of feed additives were examined at 0,1 % and 0,2 % concentrations in two forms, one mixed with the feed and the other mixed with the drinking water of the animals.The positive control group was fed with feed free of feed-additives, then they were artificially infected with Salmonella Typhimurium. The negative control group did not get feed-additives either but they were not artificially infected. This group was placed into a different premise, separateed from the rest of the animals in equal conditions. Two groups got the examined product mixed into the drinking water. Two other groups got the same product in the same concentration as the previous ones but mixed into the feed. The remaining two groups got the two reference products mixed into their drinking water . Except of the negative control group, all the other groups were infected on day 31. On the 3rd and 6th day after the infecting-procedure we collected cloaca samples from the animals. On the 36th day the animals were euthanised and as a part of pathology examination we collected samples for histology.

The weight-gain of the treated groups was significantly (p<0.01) different from the positive control. In this perspective all the products had a positive effect in Salmonella infection. During the pathological examination we observed the signs of a slight infection only. The positive effects of carboxylic acids were proven by the clinical signs and by the results of pathology and histological findings. The number of bacteria gained from the samples taken after the infection showed a reduction compared to the positive control group.