FIG 2.
Effect of EcN treatment on C. jejuni colonization in chickens. Chickens were challenged at 4 weeks of age with a cocktail of 6 C. jejuni strains, including 5 chicken-associated field isolates (1 × 105 per bird) and the C. jejuni 81-176 strain. The chickens were treated with EcN either daily in drinking water (free EcN) or using oral gavage (free or microencapsulated EcN) for 2 weeks from 3 to 5 weeks of age. Chicken cecum was collected at 5 weeks of age. Each dot represents the bacterial count for an individual chicken. *, P < 0.05 (statistically significant reduction of the C. jejuni population in ceca compared to the nontreated group (PC) by a one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) with Tukey’s test).