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Abstract
Two experiments evaluated charcoals added to the feed on the recovery of Salmonella in broilers during grow-out and processing. In both experiments, 2 "seeder" chicks were inoculated with Salmonella Typhimurium and placed with penmates to spread Salmonella throughout the pen. Feeding treatments for experiment 1 were: basal control, 0.3% bamboo charcoal, 0.6% bamboo charcoal or Aromabiotic (8 pens/TRT). The ceca penmates were sampled to confirm Salmonella colonization at 3, 4 and 6 wk, and pen litter was sampled weekly. At 3 wk, charcoal fed chicks had significantly lower recovery of Salmonella via direct plating. At 6 wk, Aromabiotic had significantly lower recovery of Salmonella with enrichment. In experiment 2 the treatments were: basal control; 0.3% bamboo charcoal; 0.3% activated bamboo charcoal or 0.3% pine charcoal (10 pens/TRT). Penmate ceca were sampled at 1 and 2 wk (1 penmate/pen) and 5 penmates/pen at 3 to 6 wk. The pH of the crop and duodenum was measured weekly from 1 penmate/pen, and litter was sampled weekly. At the end of grow-out, broilers were processed at two consecutive days. Results showed that penmates were colonized at 1 wk. Cecal Salmonella showed no difference except at 4 wk, activated bamboo charcoal had a 14% lower recovery of Salmonella with enrichment compared to the control. Recovery of Salmonella from the litter was not different among treatments, showing similar trends as in experiment 1, an overall decrease in recovery by 4 wk with direct plating. The pH of the duodenum and the crop were not different among treatments. Crop pHs from all treatments were significantly higher at wk 1 compared to wk 2 thru 6. Although litter recovery of Salmonella was not significant among treatments, charcoal had minimal effect on the recovery in the ceca, a significant reduction on the recovery from breast skin (20% decrease) was observed.