At the recent Poultry Science Assn. annual meeting in Montreal, Que., Hamlet Protein global poultry segment manager Alfred Blanch presented a study titled “Effect of an Enzyme-Treated Soy Protein on the Performance of Broiler Chickens Infected or Uninfected with Clostridium Perfringens.”

The feeding trial was carried out at Southern Poultry Feed & Research in Georgia with Greg Mathis and Brett Lumpkins, Hamlet Protein noted, and the study concluded that dietary protein makes a big difference when it comes to enteric disorders.

The addition of enzyme-treated soy protein (HP AviStart) in broiler starter diets containing a very low content of soy anti-nutritional factors, with or without antibiotic growth promoters, equals the weight of the birds infected with C. perfringens, and their feed conversion ratio equals that of uninfected chickens, Hamlet Protein said.

“The dietary protein quality counts a lot if necrotic C. perfringens confronts your flock,” Blanch said.

The basal diet composition -- and particularly the dietary protein -- plays a crucial role in the genesis of necrotic enteritis, Blanch explained. In this sense, the reduction of soy anti-nutritional factors in starter diets for broiler chickens may be a good strategy to alleviate the performance impairment due to mild necrotic enteritis outbreaks, he added.

Thus, with the addition of an enzymatically treated soybean meal (ESBM) in the starter diet, with or without antibiotic growth promoters, the performance of C. perfringens-infected broiler chickens equals that of uninfected chickens. In other words, ESBM supplementation in starter diets will result in performance improvements in birds with necrotic enteritis, regardless of the use of antibiotic growth promoters, Hamlet Protein said.

“With or without antibiotics, dietary protein makes a big difference when it comes to enteric disorders. The inclusion of [ESBM] with a very low content of [anti-nutritional factors] in starter feed may be a suitable tool to maintain the performance of the birds when it comes to coccidia vaccine and/or [antibiotic-free] broiler production systems,” Blanch concluded.

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