Veterinary session

Salmonella infections which cause foodpoisoning have a great importance in public health, and egg producing and meat producing poultry mean the biggest risk. In order to control this, the European Union (EU) started a Salmonella decontaminating programme. In these days the main problem is the spreading of antimocrobial resistance. For the sake of bringing the excessive use of antibiotics under control the EU is trying to replace and reduce it with alternative solutions. Bacteriophages, which are viruses that specifically infect bacterial species can be a solution to this problem. Many research prove, that these organisms are harmless to higher-order living beings. This preparation contains more than one bacteriophag species and hasn’t been safety tested before. In order to get authority license as a veterinary licensed medical product allowing it to be sold on the trade market, first it recquires a study proving it’s harmlessness.

We revealed, that the bacteriophage-cointaining preparation in the dose of what the producer suggested, as well as in triple and quintuple dose didn’t show any significant difference either in the body mass gain or the daily feed consumption. In the course of analysing the body mass gain we measured the body weight of the chickens three times a week through 27 days, in the body mass gain we didn’t find any significant difference between the groups treated with the single, the triple, the quintuple dose of the preparation and the control group. In case of single dose, the geometric mean of the body mass-gain was 103% of the control group, which was, with 95% reliability between the geometric mean’s 88-110% in the control group (p= 0.9853), in case of triple dose, the geometric mean of the body mass-gain was 99% of the control group, which was between the geometric mean’s 92-115% in the control group (p= 0.8273), in case of quintuple dose, the geometric mean of the body mass-gain was 101% of the control group, which was between the geometric mean’s 91-113% in the control group (p= 0.9902). The daily feed consumption didn’t show any significant difference between the qroups treated with the preparation and the control group. In case of single dose the fodder use per individual was on average, bigger with 0.78, the difference was between -6.54 and 8.1 g (p= 0.9893) with 95% reliability, in case of triple dose the fodder use per individual was on average, bigger with 2.81, the difference was between -4.51 and 10.12 g (p= 0.6942), in case of quintuple dose the fodder use per individual was on average, bigger with 2.78, the difference was between -4.53 and 10.10 g (p= 0.6991).

The preparation’s therapeutic dose and the triple and quintuple dose of that don’t cause significant difference between the body mass-gain and the feed consumption according to the control group. Therefore this preparation can be used safely for supplementary treatment in broiler chickens, it is not dangerous to public health.