Effect of a diet containing olive leaf powder on broiler chickens infected experimentally with Escherichia coli O78K80

Souissi Nada¹, Bouhamdi Samia¹,Bousnina Sameh², Ben Attia Mossadok²

(1) Laboratoire de bactériologie - Institut de la recherche vétérinaire de Tunisia
(2) Laboratoire de Bio-surveillance de l'Environnement - Faculté des Sciences de Bizerte

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of olive leaf powder, used as a food additive, on broiler chickens experimentally infected at one month of age using the Escherichia coli O78:K80 strain. Two broiler chicken groups, each containing 10 birds, were infected orally with approximately 1.3 x 10⁹ cfu of E. coli O78:K80. When the birds of one group (10) were 27 days old, they were fed a diet supplemented with 1 g of powdered olive leaf per kg of food per day until slaughter whereas those of the other group were fed a regular diet. Clinical follow-up post infection showed that birds in the group fed with a diet containing olive leaf powder lost less weight than those in the regular diet group and were colonized more slowly by the pathogen. Microbiological analyses conducted after slaughter demonstrated that the E. coli counts in the liver, spleen, and flesh of the birds fed a diet containing olive leaf powder were considerably lower than those from the other group.

Keywords: olive leaf powder, broiler chickens, Escherichia coli O78:K80