SUMMARY

• Orego-Stim helped to support broiler immune system, and growth rates in an E. coli challenge model.
• Orego-Stim in combination with an antibiotic demonstrated effective reduction of E. coli in broilers.
• Orego-Stim is a natural solution to support broilers exposed to an E. coli

BACKGROUND

• E. coli 078 can cause sub-acute infection or fatal septicaemia (Chansiripornchai and Sasipreeyajan, 2002).
• Oregano essential oil has both antibacterial and antioxidant properties (Gheisar and Kim, 2018).
• Orego-Stim is a high quality eubiotic containing 100% natural oregano essential oil.

TRIAL DESIGN

An independent trial was conducted by El-Ghany and colleagues (2014), University of Cairo, Egypt, where 200 Hubbard chicks were randomly assigned in equal numbers to one of 5 groups:

¹On day 14 of age, each broiler in the challenged groups was inoculated intramuscularly with 0.5ml of a nutrient broth culture containing 108 CFU E. coli O78/ml. Treatment duration was 5 consecutive days, from 14-18 days of age. ²Fluoroquinolone antibiotic.

Body weights of all broilers were measured weekly. To test humoral immune response, broilers in all groups were inoculated intramuscularly, at 3 weeks of age, with an injection containing 5% washed sheep red blood cells, 0.5ml/bird. Haemagglutinating inhibiting (HI) antibody titers were measured at 4, 5 and 6 weeks of age.

RESULTS

• Broilers treated with a combination of OS and CP had numerically greater body weight compared with PC, OS and CP groups (Figure 1).
• Broilers supplemented with OS and CP had the lowest E. coli re-isolation rate amongst challenged groups (Figure 2).
• Humoral immune response was significantly greater in broilers fed OS, CP, or combination, compared with positive control (Figure 3).
• Cell mediated immune response was increased in broilers fed Orego-Stim compared to PS, as demonstrated by increased phagocytic activity in monocytes (Figure 4).