Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
How to monitor for, prevent necrotic enteritis
20 Plays1 year ago
Dr. Francene Van Sambeek, a distinguished technical adviser at Elanco Animal Health, discusses how poultry producers can better monitor their flocks for this disease and how to prevent them from contracting it.
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Sponsorship
00:00:00
Speaker
Hello and welcome to the Feed Strategy Podcast.
00:00:02
Speaker
I'm your host, Feed Strategy Senior Reporter Anne Roos.
00:00:05
Speaker
This episode is sponsored by Elanco Animal Health Incorporated.
00:00:09
Speaker
Elanco is a global leader in animal health dedicated to innovating and delivering products and services to prevent and treat disease in farm animals and pets, creating value for farmers, pet owners, veterinarians, stakeholders, and society as a whole.
00:00:23
Speaker
With nearly 70 years of animal health heritage, Ilanco is committed to helping its customers improve the health of animals in their care, while also making a meaningful impact on local and global communities.
00:00:34
Speaker
Ilanco is driven by its vision of food and companionship, enriching life, and the Ilanco healthy purpose, all to advance the health of animals, people, the planet, and the enterprise.
00:00:44
Speaker
Learn more at ilanco.com.
Expert Introduction and Disease Focus
00:00:46
Speaker
My guest today is Francine Van Sambiek.
00:00:49
Speaker
A distinguished technical advisor at Ilanco, Dr. Van Sambik's expertise is in disease prevention and control for poultry with a specialization in broilers and broiler breeders, intestinal integrity, and animal welfare.
00:01:01
Speaker
We spoke recently about necrotic enteritis, or NE, and how poultry producers can better monitor their flocks for this disease and how to prevent them from contracting it.
00:01:10
Speaker
Here's our conversation.
00:01:11
Speaker
Hi, Francine.
00:01:12
Speaker
Thanks for being here today.
00:01:13
Speaker
Good morning, Anne.
00:01:14
Speaker
Thank you so much for your time.
00:01:16
Speaker
What are some of the symptoms birds display when they've contracted necrotic enteritis or NE, and why is it important to detect NE as early as possible?
Symptoms and Early Detection of Necrotic Enteritis
00:01:25
Speaker
Oh, great questions.
00:01:27
Speaker
So necrotic enteritis, it is an enteric or intestinal culture disease.
00:01:34
Speaker
It is caused by a bacterium that is called Clostridium perfringens.
00:01:39
Speaker
And the thing to know about Clostridium perfringens is it is a normal inhabitant of the chicken's digestive tract.
00:01:45
Speaker
So it lives there all the time.
00:01:47
Speaker
Normally we keep it under control by the different interventions that we do.
00:01:51
Speaker
But if the bird is significantly stressed, then that can lead to necrotic enteritis.
00:01:58
Speaker
Some of the things that we see when birds do break with necrotic enteritis, they're kind of some of your classic stick chicken look.
00:02:08
Speaker
The birds are not going to want to get up and eat.
00:02:11
Speaker
So you're going to see a decreased feed intake.
00:02:15
Speaker
And part of that is the birds just don't feel like eating and part of it is they just can't really get up and move very well because they're weak.
00:02:22
Speaker
And that kind of leads to, you know, birds look lethargic, they look ruffled, they looked like sick chickens.
00:02:30
Speaker
you can actually see birds lose weight because of the degree of not eating the feed like they should.
00:02:37
Speaker
They can also have diarrhea or it can either be watery or it can be bloody, just depending upon what stage in the necrotic enteritis the birds have gotten to.
00:02:48
Speaker
That's something definitely to be on the lookout for.
00:02:51
Speaker
That can lead to wet litter issues, which can lead to a whole host of other issues that we can certainly discuss.
00:03:00
Speaker
It's interesting when it comes to the water consumption.
00:03:03
Speaker
Initially, the birds will be drinking more.
00:03:07
Speaker
If you imagine when you have a kind of a sick tummy, you kind of want to drink a little bit more, see if you can flush out the toxins, right?
00:03:14
Speaker
So the birds kind of do the same.
00:03:16
Speaker
But then as the necrotic enteritis progresses,
00:03:19
Speaker
those birds actually are going to decrease their water consumption because they can't physically move to the water lines or they just don't feel so bad that at that point they don't feel like getting up.
00:03:32
Speaker
So anytime you see birds that are kind of sitting around or huddling, that's a sign that there is something wrong and you better be getting somebody in there to look at those birds.
00:03:41
Speaker
So Anne, to your second point about why is it important to detect necrotic enteritis as early as possible.
00:03:48
Speaker
As with any disease, we want to try and get in there at the earliest possible moment to take care of the situation.
00:03:54
Speaker
So by limiting how much spread or disease gets in our flocks, we can control how sick the birds are.
00:04:03
Speaker
And then ultimately, the necrotic enteritis left unchecked will cause the birds to die.
00:04:08
Speaker
So we want to limit the mortality that's associated with necrotic enteritis.
00:04:13
Speaker
And by getting in there early, we can actually
00:04:15
Speaker
have some very effective antibiotics we can use to treat the necrotic enteritis.
00:04:23
Speaker
Of course, if you lose birds due to mortality or you lose the growth rate, we are facing some pretty significant economic losses at that point.
00:04:32
Speaker
There's a lot of money invested in those birds.
00:04:35
Speaker
If we can detect it early and then do some interventions, we can actually be able to get that bird to where it can feed, provide protein source for the world.
00:04:48
Speaker
I think I may have already touched on it, but we are stewards of our environment.
00:04:54
Speaker
We're stewards of these birds.
00:04:55
Speaker
So we want to really preserve as much animal welfare for these birds as possible.
00:05:00
Speaker
We do know that necrotic enteritis, it can cause significant suffering and distress to those birds.
00:05:08
Speaker
So if we can get in there early and detect if there is an issue, we can prevent that suffering and actually improve the overall welfare of the birds.
00:05:15
Speaker
So those are really the reasons we want to get in there and find out if we have any chronic arthritis early.
00:05:23
Speaker
And what are some of the diagnostic tools producers use to detect NE in their flocks?
Diagnostic and Prevention Strategies
00:05:29
Speaker
I would say that your eyeballs are probably the number one thing.
00:05:33
Speaker
We are gonna be asking the producers to walk their flocks every day, be looking for any of the signs that would be associated with necrotic rice.
00:05:42
Speaker
Some of the easier things to see as, do we have birds at the feeder line?
00:05:46
Speaker
Do we have birds at the drinker line?
00:05:48
Speaker
Are they acting normal?
00:05:50
Speaker
Are they able to stand, move, and do those normal behaviors that we expect?
00:05:57
Speaker
out of birds.
00:05:58
Speaker
If they're not doing those normal behaviors, if they're just sitting on the litter and not moving out of our way when we come up to them, if they're not going to the feed pans and eating and drinking properly, that's a sign that something is wrong.
00:06:12
Speaker
um where you need to call in somebody like myself as a as a veterinarian is when it comes to the necropsy part of it or or looking at essentially an autopsy of the the mortality of the dead birds what we're going to see when we open those birds is the guts are going to be very uh swollen um you're going to see a lot of watery content there's a specific lesion that's in the gut associated with necrotic enteritis we call it a turkish towel
00:06:40
Speaker
If you can imagine like looking at your washcloth, that's the look of the interior of the gut.
00:06:46
Speaker
And that is not normal.
00:06:47
Speaker
It should be nice and slick and smooth.
00:06:48
Speaker
And instead, you've got this really proliferative membrane that's happening that does not allow absorption to happen properly.
00:06:54
Speaker
So those are the diagnostic tools that we use primarily to look at necrotic enteritis.
00:07:02
Speaker
What are some of the strategies producers implement to prevent their flocks from contracting any
00:07:09
Speaker
So necrotic enteritis is really about how much stress that bird's going under.
00:07:16
Speaker
In a normal situation, like I said, the clostridium perfidium bacteria, it's part of their normal gut.
00:07:21
Speaker
So it takes another trigger to really cause the necrotic enteritis to happen.
00:07:27
Speaker
So probably one of the most important things that at the farm level you can do is just implement good biosecurity measures.
00:07:34
Speaker
We've got to control entry of any of the other pathogens that might be out there that would add that next layer of stress to the birds that might then lead to necrotic enteritis.
00:07:47
Speaker
um you know we've got to make sure we're managing our litter properly uh we want to have a good dry environment for those birds to live on we don't want to have a lot of ammonia that is another stress for those birds so those are all things that on the farm level um the the producer can do to to minimize how much necrotic enteritis is going to happen um
00:08:10
Speaker
We've also and probably the most important thing that we can do is make sure we keep our coccidiosis in control.
00:08:18
Speaker
It's probably the number one poultry enteric disease that's out there.
00:08:23
Speaker
It's everywhere.
00:08:25
Speaker
If if a chicken has walked or pooped there, there's probably some coccidiosis there.
00:08:32
Speaker
The way that it kind of works is the birds undergo some coccidiosis infection first, and then the normal response of the birds is to release mucus into the intestinal tract to start and smooth over the damage that the coccidiosis has caused.
00:08:50
Speaker
Clostridium loves mucus.
00:08:52
Speaker
That's what they live and thrive on.
00:08:53
Speaker
So with that increased mucus in the gut, now the clostridium has really got an environment where they proliferate and thrive.
00:09:00
Speaker
And then that's what leads to necrotic enteritis.
00:09:02
Speaker
So if we can really control the coccidiosis, that is a huge help in controlling how much necrotic enteritis we're going to have.
00:09:12
Speaker
And then one other thing that it's a more recent intervention is to use an in-feed antibiotic that is specifically for the prevention of mortality associated with necrotic enteritis.
00:09:25
Speaker
One type product is called Intepridate.
00:09:29
Speaker
It is, like I said, directly used for the controlling of the mortality associated with necrotic enteritis.
00:09:36
Speaker
It's used in the feed.
00:09:39
Speaker
It does need to be in the feed before necrotic enteritis breaks.
00:09:44
Speaker
That is as the label says, but it is proven to be a very effective product in controlling necrotic enteritis in a broiler situation.
00:09:55
Speaker
So I think all those things taken together, if we can reduce bird stress, use your appropriate interventions, control coccidiosis, make sure we're not overcrowding the birds in any way.
00:10:10
Speaker
I like to see, for instance, migration fences put in when the birds are placed in the house, and that makes sure that
00:10:17
Speaker
they're divided up evenly in the house.
00:10:19
Speaker
So I'm not going to get overcrowding on one end of the house, which can certainly be another stress to the birds and promote necrotic enteritis formation.
00:10:27
Speaker
So I think taking all those factors are some of the ways that we can really help prevent necrotic enteritis from happening in our birds.
Influence of Feed and Gut Health
00:10:37
Speaker
You touched on feed there for a second.
00:10:39
Speaker
What role does feed composition play in influencing the development of necrotic enteritis?
00:10:44
Speaker
If coccidiosis is number one, I'd say feed's number two.
00:10:47
Speaker
So when we look at feed, essentially you got protein, carbohydrates, fat, okay?
00:10:55
Speaker
If you break it down to some of the big three.
00:10:57
Speaker
And for us, the carbohydrates are one of the drivers of necrotic enteritis.
00:11:04
Speaker
When we've got a highly fermentable carbohydrate, such as wheat or barley or rye, those can be used by the clostridium to really drive their growth as well.
00:11:18
Speaker
So when we put those particular feed ingredients in, that's when we tend to see more necrotic enteritis happen.
00:11:27
Speaker
So you might say, well, why do we even want to use clostridium?
00:11:30
Speaker
those ingredients.
00:11:31
Speaker
Well, sometimes they're cheaper.
00:11:33
Speaker
Sometimes that's all you can get.
00:11:36
Speaker
Sometimes that's the way that the, you want to formulate the feed with those particular ingredients.
00:11:42
Speaker
So you just, sometimes you just want to, you have to, or you want to produce, make use of those particular products.
00:11:49
Speaker
So in those situations, again, that's someplace where like putting an in-feed antibiotic would probably serve you in good
00:11:58
Speaker
would probably serve in good measure to try and help prevent some of that necrotic enteritis from happening.
00:12:05
Speaker
One other situation would be if we are doing an all-veg, or we call it all-veg chicken diet, where there is no animal source protein in that diet, those particular carbohydrates do tend to increase the viscosity of the intestinal tract.
00:12:21
Speaker
And that creates also conditions where clostridium perfringens or the bacteria that causes necrotic enteritis just absolutely thrives.
00:12:29
Speaker
So those situations where an all-veg diet, I do tend to see more necrotic enteritis as well.
00:12:40
Speaker
The use of anacoccydials, so specifically like ionophores or chemicals, weak chemicals, we've got to control that coccidiosis.
00:12:49
Speaker
Otherwise, we're kind of losing the game before we even start.
00:12:53
Speaker
So, you know, feed additives to control coccidiosis are huge.
00:13:00
Speaker
I can't overstate the fact of how much we need to control coccidiosis to be able to prevent necrotic enteritis as well.
00:13:06
Speaker
So another intervention that a lot of people are looking into now are the use of prebiotics and probiotics to help really promote the growth of
00:13:17
Speaker
let's say beneficial bacteria to out-compete the clostridium, also to strengthen that gut integrity, work on the tight junctions, make sure that we're not having bacteria that can escape out those tight junctions.
00:13:33
Speaker
And then really, if we can kind of prevent the clostridium from overgrowing in the gut, those are some nice interventions that can be used
00:13:44
Speaker
maybe in a situation where you can't use antibiotics and you've definitely got to try something else.
00:13:50
Speaker
For those folks, they're really gonna have to look at their bird densities as well to make sure that they're not overcrowding the birds and increasing any kind of those stresses.
00:14:02
Speaker
I guess one other thing to add would be, you know, I said that, you know, there's protein, there's carbohydrates, there's fat.
00:14:09
Speaker
There are some other things in the feed that the birds literally cannot digest.
00:14:15
Speaker
Things like mannins and cellulose, lignin, you know, those are ruminants can digest those, but, you know, monogastrics cannot.
00:14:23
Speaker
So, yeah.
00:14:24
Speaker
Those can actually lead to digestive stress in the birds.
00:14:28
Speaker
And anything that causes stress can cause those birds to, the clostrid, it can overgrow in that gut when those birds are stressed like that.
00:14:39
Speaker
So I think that that's pretty much how feed plays an important part in necrotic enteritis.
00:14:46
Speaker
How does maintaining optimal gut health serve as a preventative measure against any outbreaks?
00:14:52
Speaker
The gastrointestinal tract is so important to the bird's growth, health, and disease, really.
00:15:01
Speaker
If you think about it, the digestive tract, that's the portal where exterior pathogens can get in.
00:15:07
Speaker
And so if we can prevent those pathogens from coming in or once they are in, if we have good defenses in our intestinal lining to prevent them from taking over,
00:15:21
Speaker
that just helps maintain that good gut health to prevent that necrotic enteritis.
00:15:29
Speaker
If we can keep the gut in good shape, that is the driver for where all the digestion and feed, all the absorption of those nutrients comes from.
00:15:39
Speaker
So if we lose our gut integrity, we have now lost our growth engine.
00:15:44
Speaker
We've lost our gut.
00:15:46
Speaker
And that is really...
00:15:49
Speaker
implement.
00:15:49
Speaker
It's really important in the birds when they're trying to develop an immune system, trying to grow their bones, trying to lay down muscle.
00:15:57
Speaker
All those things can impact how that bird's going to grow.
00:16:00
Speaker
So if we lose our gut, we have a really hard time getting that bird to grow and be healthy.
00:16:07
Speaker
What are the economic ramifications of an NE outbreak and how does early intervention minimize financial loss?
Economic Impact and Benefits of Early Intervention
00:16:14
Speaker
Oh, good question.
00:16:16
Speaker
It has been estimated that necrotic enteritis causes over $6 billion of economic loss every year globally, $6 billion every year.
00:16:27
Speaker
And it is one of the most common bacterial intestinal diseases in the United States.
00:16:35
Speaker
We know that it can lead to impaired growth, decreased weight gain.
00:16:42
Speaker
You know, it's going to increase the amount of feed that we need to feed these birds.
00:16:46
Speaker
So anything we can do, you know, to get in there early and minimize those losses to those birds, you know, control the necrotic enteritis outbreaks, whether that's... So no additional stresses on those birds.
00:17:01
Speaker
So using...
00:17:04
Speaker
In feed and a coccidials to control the coccidiosis, which is a huge part of controlling necrotic enteritis, using an infeed antibiotic to control the mortality associated with necrotic enteritis is a huge thing that we can do to help prevent losing money or the economic losses, if you will, on these birds.
00:17:24
Speaker
We need to know quickly if there's a problem.
00:17:27
Speaker
So that's where it's really important for the producers to be communicating with the veterinarians and the other staff to like say, hey, I think we might have a problem here.
00:17:36
Speaker
Can somebody get in here and look at this early?
00:17:39
Speaker
And yeah.
00:17:41
Speaker
see if we can prevent any interactions happening in terms of, you know, is there some kind of biosecurity measure we need to implement on this farm to prevent another pathogen from coming in and stressing these birds out.
00:17:53
Speaker
So I think when you take all of those components together, if we can minimize the financial loss, you know, the grower benefits because they have additional birds that they can utilize at the end, the producer, you know, can feed the
00:18:09
Speaker
has more protein to feed the world with.
00:18:12
Speaker
It takes environmentally less feed.
00:18:14
Speaker
If we can keep these birds in good shape, their digestive tract can handle it.
00:18:17
Speaker
So we've got a sustainability aspect there as well.
00:18:22
Speaker
All these things are players in controlling necrotic enteritis and why it's so important.
00:18:29
Speaker
Well, thank you so much, Francine.
00:18:30
Speaker
This was a lot of great information.
00:18:33
Speaker
Well, thank you, Anne.
00:18:33
Speaker
I really appreciate you and letting me talk to you today about necrotic enteritis and different control measures we can do.
00:18:39
Speaker
And thank you to the audience for listening.
00:18:41
Speaker
And once again, thank you to our sponsor, Elonco Animal Health.
00:18:44
Speaker
I'm Anne Roos for Feed Strategy.