Probiotics as Alternatives to Antibiotics for the Prevention and Control of Necrotic Enteritis in Chickens.

Necrotic enteritis (NE) in poultry is an economically important disease caused by type A bacteria. A global trend on restricting the use of antibiotics as feed supplements in food animal production has caused a spike in the NE incidences in chickens, particularly in broiler populations. Amongst several non-antibiotic strategies for NE control tried so far, probiotics seem to offer promising avenues. The current review focuses on studies that have evaluated probiotic effects on growth and NE development. Several probiotic species, including , , , and bacteria as well as some yeast species have been tested in chickens against and NE development. These findings have shown to improve bird performance, reduce colonization and NE-associated pathology. The underlying probiotic mechanisms of NE control suggest that probiotics can help maintain a healthy gut microbial balance by modifying its composition, improve mucosal integrity by upregulating expression of tight-junction proteins, and modulate immune responses by downregulating expression of inflammatory cytokines. Collectively, these studies indicate that probiotics can offer a promising platform for NE control and that more investigations are needed to study whether these experimental probiotics can effectively prevent NE in commercial poultry operational settings.