Comparison of two different types of competitive exclusion products

The efficacy of two different types of commercial competitive exclusion (CE) products against Salmonella was studied in three chicken assay trials. Chicks were treated on the day of hatch and challenged one day later either with Salm. infantis (Trials 1 and 2) or a combination of Salm. infantis and Salm. enteritidis (Trial 3). The caeca of the birds were examined for Salmonella five days after challenge. The mean logarithmic counts of Salmonella were from 3·4 to 5·7 in the groups treated with product A derived from the whole caecal contents of an adult bird, from 0·0 to 1·2 in the groups treated with product B, a highly selected product that does not contain any clostridia, and from 6·3 to 7·6 in the control groups. None of the challenge organisms superseded the other in Trial 3, and neither did the double challenge affect the protective capacity of the treatment materials.