Reduction of the <i>S. enteritidis</i> titer in the cecal contents of chickens following oral supplementation of butyrate.

<p>In trial 1 (A), 5-day old male broilers were equally divided into two groups of 10 and fed with a standard antibiotic-free diet mixed with and without 0.2% sodium butyrate for 2 days. Birds were then inoculated with 1×10⁶ CFU of <i>S. enteritidis</i> phage type 13a and continued with butyrate feeding for another 4 days. The <i>S. enteritidis</i> titer in the cecal content was quantitated from each animal by serial plating on Brilliant Green agar plates containing 20 µg/ml nalidixic acid. Trial 2 (B) was similarly conducted with an additional group of 10 broilers fed with 0.1% butyrate. Each dot represents the bacterial titer from a bird and the solid line represents the median value of each treatment. Brackets indicate the statistical significance of differences (*<i>P</i> = 0.03, unpaired Student's <i>t</i>-test).