Knowledge Bank

This study examined the effect of probiotic treatment on Salmonella incidence in commercial tom turkeys in grow finish barns. Two probiotics were tested and administered through the drinking water. Both probiotics were started at the recommended production stage and given at their specified doses. Ten barns were tested overall, with five barns on the first probiotic and five barns on the second probiotic. Initial incidence of Salmonella was determined with drag swabs when the turkeys were about 17 weeks of age. Barns were assigned a particular treatment on the basis where five sites were used, each site having two barns, each barn receiving a different probiotic. Initial Salmonella incidence was equal for each probiotic. After the turkeys were treated and marketed, post-market drag swabs were taken with the same procedure as the initial drag swabs. Post-market Salmonella incidence was determined for each probiotic. While there was not a statistically significant difference in Salmonella incidence between each probiotic, there was a statistically significant reduction in Salmonella incidence overall. Results indicated a 30% reduction in Salmonella incidence after treatment with a probiotic. Furthermore, the data comparing each probiotic against each other, while not statistically significant due to low sample size, does seem to favor one probiotic over the other. With additional research, this could potentially become statistically significant. According to the results of this study, overall use of either probiotic does reduce the incidence of Salmonella in commercial market age heavy tom turkeys. However, there were uncontrollable factors that may have had an effect on the results. Weather, humidity, and litter conditions were observably inconsistent during pre-swab and post-swab analysis, which may have affected the survival of Salmonella. Furthermore, due to an infectious disease, several barns required antibiotic treatment during this study; removal of their data was not statistically significant.