The development of protein and amino acid formulation strategies to reduce necrotic enteritis in broiler chickens

坏死性肠炎是由产气荚膜梭菌在肠道过度生长引起的肉鸡的一种常见病。使鸟类易患去甲肾上腺素的因素之一是饲料中的氨基酸含量。本研究的目的是确定影响肉鸡肠道产气荚膜梭菌数量的与日粮氨基酸相关的因素。具体地说，我们将研究饲料氨基酸平衡、氨基酸消化率和非必需氨基酸水平对产气荚膜梭菌肠道种群、肠道形态和基因表达的影响。我们还将研究亚临床坏死性肠炎对禽类生长性能的影响。这项工作的结果将加深我们对日粮氨基酸和肠道细菌种群之间关系的理解，并减少我们对肉鸡生产中对饲料中抗生素的依赖。

Necrotic enteritis (NE) is a common disease of broiler chickens caused by the overgrowth of Clostridium perfringens in the intestinal tract. One of the factors which predisposes birds to NE is the amino acid content of the diet. The objective of this proposal is to determine factors associated with dietary amino acids which affect the populations of C. perfringens in the intestinal tract of broiler chickens. Specifically, we will investigate the effect of dietary amino acid balance, amino acid digestibility and the level of non-essential amino acids on intestinal populations of C. perfringens, gut morphology and gene expression. We will also investigate the effect of subclinical necrotic enteritis on bird growth performance. The results of this work will enhance our understanding of the relationship between dietary amino acids and intestinal bacterial populations and reduce our dependence on in-feed antibiotics for broiler production.