Understanding and controlling necrotic enteritis in broiler chickens

Principal Investigator

John Prescott, University of Guelph

Year the work was done

2013-2016

Overall objective

  • To develop a live oral Clostridium perfringens vaccine to control necrotic enteritis.

Outcomes

  • Transcriptomic analysis of did not identify clear vaccine candidates. A live, attenuated oral Clostridium perfringens vaccine against necrotic enteritis of broiler chickens was not achieved.
  • The results show that this approach will not result in an effective vaccine.
  • Five mutants of a necrotic enteritis strain of C. perfringens have been shown to be attenuated for virulence.

Application

  • Identified genes of C. perfringens likely very important in the initiation of NE in the broiler chicken for further studies.

This research applies to

Broilers

This research was supported by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, and Canadian Poultry Research Council.