The efficacy of some probiotics and prebiotics on the prevalence of E. coli and the immune response of chickens

The present study aimed to investigate the efficacy of probiotics and prebiotics in controlling E. coli spp. isolated from chicken. A total of 230 birds representing 19 different commercial breeds were taken from various points. Birds were monitored for postmortem and clinical investigation. Aseptically collected liver samples, lungs, kidneys, hearts, and yolk sacs were then subjected to bacterial isolation and identification. Escherichia coli (E. coli) were observed in nine pooled samples from 120 examined with an incidence of 7.5%. Nine farms were E. coli-positive, with an incidence of farm infection of 47.3%. The nine suspected isolates of E. coli were profiled by morphological and microbiological identification of the colony, motility and Gram reaction. The serogroup analysis showed nine different E. coli for which three other groups were identified: two E.coli O78, three E.coli O111 and four untyped groups. Nine isolates of E. coli were subjected to PCR. Molecular detection of nine strains was conducted to find the virulence genes of E. coli strains (8 STX1, 4 STX2, and 9 EAE). Probiotics and prebiotics significantly increased the total erythrocytic and leukocytic counts throughout the experiment. The phagocytic percentage's main values at 14 days were 47% and 30%, respectively. An increase in the humoral immunity against Newcastle disease (ND) was noticed after ND vaccination. The geometric mean (HI) was 5.9 and 4.2 for probiotic and prebiotic, respectively. It could be concluded that probiotics and prebiotics could stimulate a non-specific immune response against experimental infection with a virulent strain of E. coli spp.