Responses of broiler chickens orally challenged with Eimeria acervulina and Clostridium perfringens or infected alone with Clostridium perfringens
2010
Malmarugan, S. | Sivaseelan, S. | Eswaran, M Arthanari | Balasubramaniam, G.A. | Dorairajan, N.
The present experiment examines the responses of broiler chickens to oral administration of Clostridium perfringens, freshly isolated from field cases of necrotic enteritis (NE), with or without Eimeria acervulina oocysts from intestinal contents of NE suspected commercial broilers. Fourteen alpha toxin specific PCR positive isolates out of twenty Cl. perfringens isolates were used in present study. The challenge study was carried out in 36 day old broiler chicks which were divided into 3 groups. Group CA administered with 20,000 sporulated E. acervulina oocysts via oral route on 28ᵗʰ day. Birds of group CA and CB were infected with Cl. perfringens (10⁸ cfu per ml; 1 ml per bird) via oral route on 30, 31 and 32ⁿᵈ days. Group C served as control. Birds were kept under observation up to 42ⁿᵈ day. No death was observed. However, many of the birds, infected with both Cl. perfringens and E. acervulina oocyst group showed distinctly pronounced pathological changes in the intestinal tissues. The lesion of NE were graded in the scale from 0 to 4. The maximal mean lesion score of 3.5 and the highest total score of 21 were observed in birds dually infected with Cl. perfringens and E. acervulina oocyst. Histopathological changes observed in birds challenged with E. acervulina and Cl. perfringens were, degeneration and necrosis of enterocytes, microcyst formation and mononuclear cells infiltration within the villi, and haemorrhages between villi. In birds infected with Cl. Perfringens alone, moderate vacuolating degeneration of enterocytes with submucosal infiltration of mononuclear cells was noticed.
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