In vitro antibacterial activity of thymol and carvacrol and their effects on broiler chickens challenged with Clostridium perfringens

Table 5 Effect of essential oils on ileal bacterial populations of broilers on day 28

Item ^a	Total bacteria	Lactobacillus	Escherichia	C. perfringens
Treatment
Basal diet, unchallenged	9.13	7.70	6.09	3.00
60 mg/kg EO, unchallenged	9.08	7.76	6.27	2.79
120 mg/kg EO, unchallenged	8.85	7.71	5.90	2.94
240 mg/kg EO, unchallenged	9.13	7.76	5.91	2.84
Basal diet, challenged	9.26	7.99	6.13	2.96
60 mg/kg EO, challenged	9.33	8.18	6.56	3.04
120 mg/kg EO, challenged	9.08	7.98	5.76	2.95
240 mg/kg EO, challenged	8.91	7.80	5.60	2.95
SEM	0.058	0.081	0.098	0.051
P-value
Challenge	0.421	0.135	0.887	0.462
EO	0.365	0.877	0.092	0.953
Challenge × EO	0.469	0.882	0.742	0.789
Linear ^b	0.215	0.662	0.071	0.619
Quadratic ^b	0.502	0.708	0.780	0.931

^a Values are means of eight replicates per treatment, and expressed as log₁₀ (copy/g digesta). EO, essential oils; unchallenged, birds without challenge of C. perfringens; challenged, birds challenged with C. perfringens from day 14 to 20; SEM, pooled standard error of the mean; Challenge × EO, interaction between C. perfringens challenge and EO supplementation
^b When interaction between C. perfringens challenge and EO supplementation was not significant, linear and quadratic polynomial contrasts were performed on the main-effect means to EO dosages

ISSN: 2049-1891