Table 1.
Lesion scores (liver and cecal) and total aerobic, presumptive gram-negative, and lactic acid bacteria (cecal and lower ileum) of turkeys receiving dietary sodium chlorate (SC) or sodium nitrate (SN) challenged with Histomonas meleagridis.
| Treatment | NC | PC | SC | SN | P-value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lesion score liver (0-3) | 0.00 ± 0.00b | 2.00 ± 0.23a | 2.38 ± 0.19a | 2.31 ± 0.21a | <0.0001 |
| Lesion score ceca (0-3) | 0 ± 0.00b | 2.13 ± 0.22a | 2.31 ± 0.18a | 2.38 ± 0.21a | <0.0001 |
| Recoverable gram-negative bacteria (Log10 CFU/g) 1 | 6.34 ± 0.20 | 6.81 ± 0.19 | 6.79 ± 0.16 | 6.97 ± 0.17 | 0.0989 |
| Recoverable lactic-acid bacteria (Log10 CFU/g) | 7.16 ± 0.18 | 6.42 ± 0.17 | 6.65 ± 0.25 | 6.78 ± 0.20 | 0.0793 |
| Mortality (%) | 0b | 18.8a | 31.3a,1 | 18.8a | <0.05 |
a,bValues within rows with different superscripts differ significantly (P < 0.05).
Data are expressed as the mean ± SEM.
Abbreviations: NC, negative control; PC, positive control; SC, dietary sodium chlorate (3,200 ppm); SN, dietary sodium nitrate (500 ppm); IACUC, Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee. Poults from groups NC and PC were fed a basal diet; poults from groups SC and SN started to be fed with the respective compounds on day 12.
Poults from groups PC, SC, and SN were intracloacally challenged with 2 × 105 histomonads on day 14.
Birds from group SC were euthanized on day 25 because mortality reached 30% as required in IACUC protocol.