Kerek Ádám, Szabó Ábel, Dobra Péter Ferenc, Bárdos Krisztina, Paszerbovics Bettina, Bata Zsófia, Molnár-Nagy Viviána, Jerzsele Ákos, Ózsvári László
Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, University of Veterinary Medicine, Budapest, Hungary.
National Laboratory of Infectious Animal Diseases, Antimicrobial Resistance, Veterinary Public Health and Food Chain Safety, University of Veterinary Medicine, Budapest, Hungary.
Front Vet Sci. 2025 Apr 24;12:1570387. doi: 10.3389/fvets.2025.1570387. eCollection 2025.
Combating antimicrobial resistance is one of the most pressing public health challenges of our time. The rapid spread of resistant, zoonotic bacterial strains in livestock farming is increasingly raising concerns about the need to reduce antibiotic use. Because of this, there is an urgent need for safe and effective alternatives in animal husbandry.
This study aimed to perform an the dose-response analysis of fenugreek (), as a plant-based antibiotic alternative feed supplement in Bábolna Tetra-SL chicks (1-42 days old) with a 1:1 sex ratio. A total of 270 chicks were randomly assigned to 18 groups (15 birds per group) and subjected to six different treatment groups in three replicates: fenugreek at 1×, 10×, and 100× doses, an antibiotic-treated group (enrofloxacin), a positive control group (infection only), and a negative control group (no infection or treatment). The infection was induced using mixed and , administered via gavage on days 3 and 4 of life. The birds were monitored for clinical symptoms, body weight, feed intake, and shedding through cloacal swab samples. Statistical analyses included mixed-effect logistic regression for mortality, mixed-effect linear models for weight gain, two-way ANOVA for feed efficiency, and random effects continuation ratio models for isolation.
Significant interactions for Group:Day and Sex:Day in weight gain were identified ( < 0.0001 for both). Additionally, the 1 × dose group showed significantly reduced shedding compared to the positive control group on day 33 ( = 0.0031). The low-dose group (1×) demonstrated the most promising results, showing a 63% reduction in shedding on day 10 and 31% on day 17. This group exhibited the fewest clinical symptoms, no diarrhea, and the lowest individual and specific feed intake up to day 24.
The findings of this study suggest that low-dose fenugreek supplementation could be a viable strategy for reducing shedding in poultry, potentially contributing to reduced antibiotic use in poultry farming and thus playing a role in the global effort to combat antimicrobial resistance. Future research will involve large-scale industrial trials and next-generation sequencing to evaluate the additive's impact on gut microbiota composition.
应对抗菌药物耐药性是我们这个时代最紧迫的公共卫生挑战之一。耐药人畜共患病细菌菌株在畜牧业中的迅速传播，日益引发人们对减少抗生素使用必要性的担忧。因此，畜牧业迫切需要安全有效的替代方案。
本研究旨在对葫芦巴作为一种基于植物的抗生素替代饲料添加剂，在性别比例为1:1的巴博尔纳四系杂交小鸡（1至42日龄）中进行剂量反应分析。总共270只小鸡被随机分配到18个组（每组15只），并分为六个不同的处理组，每组重复三次：葫芦巴1倍、10倍和100倍剂量组、抗生素治疗组（恩诺沙星）、阳性对照组（仅感染）和阴性对照组（无感染或治疗）。在小鸡出生第3天和第4天通过灌胃给予混合的[未提及的两种物质]诱导感染。通过泄殖腔拭子样本监测小鸡的临床症状、体重、采食量和[未提及的物质]排出情况。统计分析包括用于死亡率的混合效应逻辑回归、用于体重增加的混合效应线性模型、用于饲料效率的双向方差分析以及用于[未提及的物质]分离的随机效应连续比例模型。
在体重增加方面，发现组与日以及性别与日之间存在显著交互作用（两者均P<0.0001）。此外，在第33天，1倍剂量组的[未提及的物质]排出量与阳性对照组相比显著减少（P = 0.0031）。低剂量组（1倍）显示出最有前景的结果，在第10天[未提及的物质]排出量减少63%，在第17天减少31%。该组临床症状最少，无腹泻，在第24天前个体采食量和特定采食量最低。
本研究结果表明，低剂量添加葫芦巴可能是减少家禽[未提及的物质]排出的可行策略，有可能有助于减少家禽养殖中的抗生素使用，从而在全球应对抗菌药物耐药性的努力中发挥作用。未来的研究将涉及大规模工业试验和下一代测序，以评估该添加剂对肠道微生物群组成的影响。
