title: Effect of ingested Lactobacilli on Salmonella infantis and Escherichia coli and on intestinal flora, pasted vents, and chick growth.
abstract: Experiments were conducted to evaluate the use of lactobacilli (LB) in poultry medicine. These were the findings: (1) the numbers of LB and Escherichia coli present in the ceca of newly hatched chicks from the same hatchery had marked variation among hatches; (2) LB inoculated into the crop a few hours after hatching did not induce a reduction of Salmonella infantis in the cecal contents; (3) a single dose of LB given at one day after hatching did not appear to alter the LB-coliform balance in the cecum; (4) in one group of fasted chicks, LB inoculation prevented accumulation of excreta around the vents; (5) prophylactic feeding of the bacillus to non-stressed chicks averted pasted vents; (6) continuous feeding of LB produced a numerical increase of body weight that was not statistically significant in the small groups of birds utilized; (7) poults hatched from medicated eggs had a low LB count in the cecum, and crop instillation of LB at one day of age did not change the cecal LB-coliform flora at 9 days of age in treated and untreated groups; (8) LB that had an initial viable count of 10(9) and was held at room temperature in tap water remained at that titer for 23 days; and (9) various numerical combinations of LB and E. coli in the stationary phase of growth did not, at any concentration of either organism, depress viability of the other.
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002432:Cecum / Q000382:microbiology; D002645:Chickens / Q000254:growth & development / Q000382:microbiology*; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000254:growth & development / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D005243:Feces; D007421:Intestine, Small / Q000382:microbiology*; D007778:Lactobacillus / Q000502:physiology*; D012475:Salmonella / Q000254:growth & development / Q000302:isolation & purification