Summary: | Postbiotic feed additives may aid foodborne pathogen reduction during poultry rearing. The study objective was to evaluate a postbiotic additive in parallel to an industry control diet and the subsequent associated burden of <i>Salmonella enterica</i> on a single, commercial broiler farm in Honduras. Twelve houses were matched and assigned the standard diet (CON) or standard diet plus postbiotic (SCFP). New litter was placed in each house and retained across flock cycles with sampling prior to each chick placement and three consecutive rearing cycles. At ~33–34 days, 25 ceca were collected on-farm from each house, treatment, and cycle. <i>Salmonella</i> prevalence in litter for CON (30.6%) and SCFP (27.8%) were equivalent; however, <i>Salmonella</i> load within positive samples was lower (<i>p</i> = 0.04) for SCFP (3.81 log<sub>10</sub> MPN/swab) compared to CON (5.53 log10 MPN/swab). Cecal prevalence of <i>Salmonella</i> was lower (<i>p</i> = 0.0006) in broilers fed SCFP (3.4%) compared to CON (12.2%). <i>Salmonella</i> load within positive ceca were numerically reduced (<i>p</i> = 0.121) by 1.45 log<sub>10</sub> MPN/g for SCFP (2.41 log<sub>10</sub> MPN/g) over CON (3.86 log<sub>10</sub> MPN/g). Estimated burden was lower (<i>p</i> = 0.003) for SCFP flocks (3.80 log<sub>10</sub> MPN) compared to CON (7.31 log<sub>10</sub> MPN). These data demonstrate the preharvest intervention potential of postbiotics to reduce <i>Salmonella enterica</i> in broiler chickens.
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