Efecto de la aplicación de colífagos en el control de Escherichia coli en pollos de engorde

Abstract

Poultry is a sector that keeps growing, also an important income generator, reason for why disease control is essential. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of a coliphage application and conventional treatment (antibiotic) in affected chickens with an E. coli pathogen strain and its result over productive parameters, also to compare the obtained results with previously released studies. It was used 96 Cobb 500 chicks randomly distributed in six treatments: T1 Coliphage and E. coli, T2 Coliphage, T3 Antibiotic and E. coli, T4 Antibiotic, T5 Positive control and T6 Negative control. This investigation was carried out in the same place but, in three different moments. It was evaluated food intake, body weight, food conversion, body weight gain and mortality. The birds were challenged at 10 days of age with tittles of 105 CFU E. coli and immediately treated with 108 PFU bacteriophage, throughout the experiment mortality, weights and leftover food were recorded for every treatment, the study lasted for 21 days. The application of a phage cocktail in T1 showed optimal productive parameters, although there was no significant difference (p>0,05) between the treatments, these results were better than those obtained in T5. In birds treated with antibiotic (T3), productive parameters were no statistically significant (p>0,05). About mortality, T1 excelled compared to T3 and Positive control. The productive parameters data obtained were compared with results of previous investigations, in which the authors agree with the efficiency of the bacteriophage application to control avian colibacillosis. In conclusion, coliphage cocktail acts competently to reduce mortality until 21 days old chickens without affect productive parameters, even this can be considered an alternative to antibiotic use.