Reintroduction of microflora from necrotic enteritis-resistant chickens reduces gross lesions and improves performance of necrotic enteritis-challenged broilers

Abstract Probiotics feature one or multiple strains of viable bacteria that beneficially modulate the intestinal health of the host. The key criteria for probiotics, like all feed additives, are that they must be safe and efficacious to use. One of the efficacious measures for probiotics used in poultry feed is their ability to act as an alternative to in-feed antibiotics against economically significant diseases like necrotic enteritis (NE). The current study investigated the effect of the reintroduction of crude ileal and cecal contents from previously NE-challenged chickens on performance, mortality, and intestinal lesions of young broilers under NE challenge. As expected, a subclinical NE challenge depressed bird performance (P