Poultry, Fisheries & Wildlife Sciences
Open Access

Abstract

Evaluation of Antibiotics to Control Mycoplasma gallisepticum in Broiler Breeder Chickens

Mohamad T Farran, Hany F Ellakany, Houssam A Shaib and Habib M Majed

This study aims at the evaluation of the efficacy of Pulmotil and Denagard in comparison to the generic tylosin against Mycoplasma gallisepticum (MG) infection in broiler breeders. A total of 600 twenty four-week old broiler breeder pullets along with their 60 roosters of the Ross 308 strain, were equally subdivided into four treatments of 150 birds each with 3 replicates per treatment (50 pullets and 5 roosters/pen). The MG-free birds of Group 1, the Control, were kept in a separate house and left with no MG-challenge or drug administration while those of groups 2, 3, and 4 were raised in another house and previously challenged with MG at 2 and 24 weeks of age respectively. Every 4 weeks and for 3 consecutive days, birds of group 3 were administered Pulmotil (3–21 Weeks) and Denagard (25–44 weeks), whereas those of Group 4 were treated throughout the trial with generic Tylosin. Production performance parameters were not significantly different among the differently treated birds. At 30 weeks of age, Pulmotil-Denagard treatment significantly reduced the tracheal MG counts to a similar level to that of the controls and restored the fertility of the MG challenged birds at 39 weeks of age. At 35 weeks of age, Pulmotil-Denagard treatment significantly reduced the frequency of day-old progeny with positive airsac lesions. It also reduced MG colonization in the airsacs of the day-old offsprings of the 35 and 39 week old breeders. As the Pulmotil-Denagard treatment significantly reduced the MG colonization of bird tissues, it reduced MG sera titers at 12, 20 and 30 weeks of age, and increased titers against IB, IBD and ND at later stages. In conclusion, the use of Pulmotil/Denagard program is highly recommended in MG-infected breeder farms, and protects against any potential MG endemic infection.