AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH COMMUNICATION CENTRE www.arccjournals.com/www.ijaronline.in *Corresponding author’s e-mail: mukundkadam@gmail.com 1 Poultry Diagnostic and Research centre of Venkateshwara Hatcheries, Pune-412 201, Maharashtra, India. Indian J. Anim. Res., 52 (4) 2018 : 619-622 Print ISSN:0367-6722 / Online ISSN:0976-0555 Efficacy of Bacillus Subtilis (GalliPro) supplementation in Clostridium perfringens challenged necrotic enteritis of broiler chicken Deepak Koli 1 , Mukund Kadam*, Mayura. Gole, Archana Patil, Swati Hajare, Amit Yeskal, Sunil Kolte and Nitin Kurkure Nagpur Veterinary College, Maharashtra Animal and Fishery Sciences University, Nagpur-440 006, Maharashtra, India. Received: 02-06-2016 Accepted: 17-11-2016 DOI: 10.18805/ijar.B-3253 ABSTRACT The experiment was designed for 42 days to assess dietary supplementation of Bacillus Subtilis (GalliPro-DSM 17299) on growth performance and intestinal health against C. perfringens induced necrotic enteritis in broiler birds. Birds (n=400) were divided in to four groups [healthy (control), infected, healthy supplemented with B. subtilis @ 500 g/T of feed (1.2 x 10 6 cfu/g); infected supplemented with B. Subtilis@ 500 g/T ] with five replicates of 20 birds in each group. Necrotic enteritis was induced in broiler birds via inoculation of 50,000 oocysts of mixed strains of Eimeria species on 14 days of age followed by C. perfringens (10 7 cfu/mL) on 17, 18 and 19 days of age. Study revealed that necrotic enteritis challenge suppressed the body weight gain significantly, whereas infected birds supplemented with Bacillus subtilis showed significantly higher body weight gain. The feed intake and feed conversion ratio was not significantly affected in any of the groups. Significant reduction was noticed in bacterial count of C. perfringens infected birds supplemented with B. subtilis. Intestinal damage was observed in the infected control birds while it was recovered in birds supplemented with B. subtilis. The significant beneficial effect of B. Subtilis was recorded in the production performance of broiler chicken even in the absence of necrotic enteritis challenge. Thus it was concluded that supplementation of B. Subtilis helps to improve body weight gain and gut health to control necrotic enteritis. Key words: Broiler chicken, B. subtilis, C. perfringens, Intestinal health, Necrotic enteritis. INTRODUCTION Use of antibiotics in the poultry feed has become an issue of concern worldwide. This has led to the formulation of regulations to restrict antibiotic use in livestock and poultry production. The use of probiotics to improve the performance and general health status of all poultry species, particularly in the broiler chicken and layer hens, has been revived by legislation to curtail the use of sub-therapeutic doses of antibiotics in poultry diets. In spite of all the preventive advances in poultry production, necrotic enteritis an enterotoxaemic disease caused by Clostridium perfringens regularly affects chicken flocks, leading to development of necrotic lesions in gut wall causing heavy mortality leading to economic losses to the poultry farmers. The necrotic enteritis disease in its acute form may bring about increased mortality in the broiler flock for several consecutive days till the last weeks of rearing period (Kaldhushdal and Lovland, 2000). Due to development of antibiotic resistance by most of the bacterial strains in chickens including Clostridium perfringens, the current scenario demands a healthy and safe alternative to the blatant use of antibiotics in poultry industry. Therefore, a study was conducted to evaluate efficacy of Bacillus subtilis ( 1.2 x10 6 CFU/g) supplementation on growth performance, colonization of Clostridium perfringens, histopathology and immuno- competence of broiler chickens under necrotic enteritis condition. MATERIALS AND METHODS The experiment was conducted for 42 days on day old unsexed Vencobb- 400 broiler chicks. Corn-soybean diets devoid of coccidiostat and antibiotic growth promoter (AGP) were fed to the experimental birds during entire research work. The feed was formulated as per the nutrient requirement of Vencobb- 400. A total of 400 birds were divided in to four groups with five replicates of 20 birds in each group. The various treatment groups were as follows. Healthy Control (T1): Birds without challenge of Clostridium perfringens fed on basal diet. Healthy supplemented with Bacillus subtilis (T2): Birds without challenge of Clostridium perfringens + Bacillus subtilis @ 500g/Ton of feed (1.2 x10 6 cfu/g feed). Infected (T3): Birds challenged with Clostridium perfringens at 17, 18 and 19 day of age on basal diet.