Clinical study on turkeys of the combined coli-salmonella bacteriophage

Infectious diseases of turkeys, in particular salmonellosis and colibacteriosis, are a serious problem and lead to significant economic losses. The damage is due to the high mortality of young animals, reduced egg production in breeding herds, deterioration of meat quality, costs of treatment, elimination of the disease and preventive measures. However, the main problem is the impact of contaminated meat products on public health. The use of antibiotics allows you to get good results in treatment, but it is ineffective in terms of eliminating infection. To solve this problem, it is advisable to minimize their use in industry, as well as replace them with other antimicrobial agents. One of such promising areas is the use of bacteriophages. This paper presents the results of a clinical study of a combined bacteriophage on turkey in industrial conditions, confirming its safety and effectiveness. The basis for conducting clinical trials of the combined coli-salmonella bacteriophage were cases of infectious pathology caused by enteropathogenic escherichia, periodically recorded in young turkeys, as well as the detection of Salmonella enteritidis isolates in pathological material during monitoring studies. The disease was manifested by a violation of the gastrointestinal tract, intoxication with signs of depression, ruffled feathers, typical pathoanatomic changes in the organs of the gastrointestinal tract. With the prophylactic use of the combined bacteriophage, there were no outbreaks of colibacteriosis and salmonellosis, whereas 3 cases of colibacteriosis were recorded in the control group, confirmed by the results of bacteriological studies. When evaluating the therapeutic effect, it was found that the use of the drug for a course of 3-5 days makes it possible to effectively stop the disease, regardless of the age category of the bird. With the course use of the drug, there was no increase in mortality and an increase in the number of forcibly culled poultry, which indicates the harmlessness of the tested drug. When assessing the economic efficiency, it was found that the costs of treatment courses of the drug in the experimental group were less than in the control group. Similar results were obtained with the prophylactic use of the drug.