Date of Graduation

12-2022

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Science in Biology

Degree Level

Undergraduate

Department

Biological Sciences

Advisor/Mentor

Alrubaye, Adnan

Committee Member/Reader

Bailey, Tameka

Committee Member/Second Reader

Kral, Timothy

Committee Member/Third Reader

Davidson, Fiona

Abstract

Bacterial Chondronecrosis with Osteomyelitis (BCO) is a form of bacteria that causes lameness in broiler chickens and is a common concern within the poultry industry. This easily transmissible disease can quickly take over entire livestock of chickens leading to an animal welfare issue. Due to this, it is a pressing issue that must be solved in order to protect the wellbeing of broiler chickens and ensure viable livestock. Nuproxa is a company that specializes in chicken feed in which we used to test different amounts of Panbonis, a dietary supplement, in its effectiveness in protecting broiler chickens against BCO lameness. We conducted this experiment for 56 days with seven different treatments including four different diets. Treatments 1 and 2 were our positive and negative controls, respectively. Treatment 1 included the administration of diet 1, with no Panbonis content, as well as wire flooring within the pen. The wire flooring is known to rapidly induce lameness within broiler chickens, therefore acting as our index case in the spread of BCO. Treatment 2 also included the administration of diet 2 but used the same litter flooring as the other pens. Treatments 3 through 7 used varying diets with differing Panbonis concentration and used the basal litter flooring. Each treatment had four pens, except for the positive control (treatment 1) which were placed at the front of the house, leading to a total of 26 pens. After day 35, we began to check all of the pens for incidences of lameness, cull, and necropsy each day to record the progression and spread of BCO lameness for each diet. When completing each necropsy, we checked the left and right femurs as well as the left and right tibias and labeled them with a series of lesions associated with lameness. After day 56 we completed our recordings of lameness per pen. It was found that treatments 1 and 2 had the most cases of lameness with incidences of 81% and 74% respectively. Treatment 4 was found to have the least cases of lameness with an incidence of 34%. Treatment 4 used only diet 3 which consisted of 100 g/ton of Panbonis and is recognized as the best treatment for significantly decreasing the infection rate of BCO lameness in broiler chickens.

Keywords

Broiler Chickens; Bacterial Chondronecrosis with Osteomyelitis; Microbiology; Animal Welfare; Food Safety; Lameness

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