Effect of refined functional carbohydrates from enzymatically hydrolyzed yeast on the presence of Salmonella spp. in the ceca of broiler breeder females

Broiler breeders hatched from Salmo-nella negative grandparents received either zero or 50 g/MT of refined functional carbohydrates (RFC) in their diets from d of placement to end of lay. There were no other treatments used. Pullets and cockerels were reared separately in an enclosed litter-floor house to 21 wk of age when 28 randomly selected pullets from each diet were transferred to individual cages for an additional 14 d before they were killed, and their ceca were excised aseptically and tested for Salmonella spp. The remaining birds were transferred to a two-thirds slat and one-third litter curtain-sided laying house. There were 8 pens of 60 to 65 females and 8 to 18 males, depending upon flock age and housing type, fed each diet, and there was no effort made to isolate pens from typical daily foot traffic between pens. At 51 wk of age, male progeny broiler chicks were hatched and received either zero or 50 g/MT of RFC to complete a 2 × 2 design with 4 replicate pens of 12 males per interaction. All broilers were tested for cecal Salmonella spp. at 34 d of age. Ceca were collected from 30 breeder hens from each treatment at 64 wk of age and tested for Salmonella spp. Of the ceca sampled at 23 wk from the control pullets, 71.4% were found to contain Salmonella spp., while none of the ceca from the RFC pullets tested positive. Of the ceca sampled from the control hens at 64 wk, 40% were found to contain Salmonella spp., while none of the ceca from the RFC hens tested positive. Salmonella spp. was isolated from broilers in one pen of the control broilers that were also progeny of control breeders out of 4 replicates but not from any pens in which the breeders had been fed RFC. These data demonstrated that RFC reduced natural Salmonella spp. colonization of broiler breeder hen and broiler progeny ceca during a complete production cycle.