Abstract
Avian influenza (AI) is a highly contagious disease causing significant economic losses worldwide. The aim of this study is to evaluate the effect of mannan-oligosaccharide (MOS) on tracheal and cloacal virus shedding in AI challenged broilers and contamination of environment with H9N2. A total of 300 1-day-old-broiler chicks were randomly divided into 3 groups (A, B and C) and supplemented 0.2, 0.5 and 0.0% MOS, respectively in NRC recommended diet for 36 days. On day 21 the groups were further split into two sub groups A+ve, A-ve, B+ve, B-ve, C+ve and C-ve with 5 replicates each. The positive groups were shifted to remote sheds and were challenged intranasally with 0.1 ml of reference virus (AIV; Pk-UDL/01/08 H9N2) with EID50 = 10(-6.66). Treatment reduces (P<0.05) cloacal virus shedding from day 24 to 26 and 28 to 32. Tracheal virus shedding was lower (P<0.05) on days 25-26 and 28-30 in treatment groups. Day 27 showed highest (P>0.05) virus shedding in all groups. However the reduction of viral shedding is faster in treatment groups and showed no virus shedding on day 32. Maternal antibody titer against AI showed a declining pattern but MOS influenced (P<0.05) the titer in treated groups. Hence the use of MOS may constitute a novel and effective plausible alternative that reduces the spread of disease by decreasing virus shedding and contamination of environment from AIV (H9N2) infection in poultry.