Utilization of Natural Supplements to Enhance the Well-Being of Poultry During Clostridium and Coccidiosis Challenges
A special issue of Animals (ISSN 2076-2615). This special issue belongs to the section "Animal Welfare".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 August 2025 | Viewed by 198
Special Issue Editor
Interests: broilers; feed additives; intestinal health; phytobiotics; poultry nutrition; probiotics and prebiotics
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Intensive poultry production often leads to an increase in the spread of diseases that cause the economic loss of products. The poultry sector suffers from severe financial losses attributed to intestinal necrotic enteritis (NE), which is caused by Clostridium perfringens, with the yearly losses estimated to be 6 billion dollars. Clinical coccidiosis and mild coccidial infections predispose birds to NE. Interactions occur between poultry coccidiosis and other diseases, caused by various pathogens or nutritional imbalances. Clostridioses intercurrent with coccidiosis pose an increased health risk to poultry. Gut injury caused by coccidial infection can predispose poultry to clostridial infection and NE. In addition, the leakage of plasma proteins due to coccidiosis can enable the proliferation of C. perfringens, while mucosal damage and parasitic lesions can compromise the integrity of the gut by preventing efficient digestion and allowing the proliferation of pathogens.
Due to the emergence of antimicrobial resistance bacteria, the use of antimicrobial growth-promoting (AGP) antibiotics has been restricted or banned totally in poultry production. Moreover, the increasing invasion of broiler farms by live anticoccidial vaccines has prompted researchers to question whether vaccines might intensify clostridial diseases. Accordingly, it has become crucial to find novel nutritional strategies that diminish infection with C. perfringens, and ultimately control NE in chickens to improve gut health.
This Special Issue welcomes the submission of reviews and original articles whose scope includes, but is not limited to, the following topics:
- In vivo and in vitro studies on the effect of natural supplements: types, modes of action and impacts on poultry health and production.
- Natural supplements and their effect on genomics, genetics and metabolomics tools.
- Natural supplements and the microbiome of the gut of poultry.
- Natural supplements and their relation to the immune system of poultry.
Prof. Dr. Alaeldein Mahmood Abudabos
Guest Editor
Manuscript Submission Information
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Keywords
- probiotics
- prebiotics
- phytobiotics
- organic acids
- gut health
- bacterial challenge
- coccidial challenge
- performance
- gene expression
- immune system and interleukins
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