Algae in Chicken Feed : The Colonization of Two Different Strains of Campylobacter Jejuni in Chicken Fed with Laminarin Extract

Sammanfattning: In the last two centuries, the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and nitrogen in the oceans have steadily risen due to human action. This has resulted in a changing climate with higher mean temperatures globally and more eutrophic sea waters. Lowering the amount of carbon dioxide while also lowering the amount of nitrogen, by harvesting algae from the oceans has been proposed as a way in alleviating some of the problems. Algae and algae extracts have been shown to have a beneficial effect on the growth of animals. The aims of this study were to determine whether supplementing chicken feed with the algae extract laminarin has any effect on the colonization of Campylobacter jejuni in chicken intestine, while also studying strain specific differences in colonization ability between C. jejuni strains of different host origins. This study showed no difference in C. jejuni colonization between the chickens raised on feed supplemented with laminarin or conventional feed, nor between the two different strains of C. jejuni. These results show that the amount of C. jejuni are neither lower nor higher in the chickens raised on feed supplemented with laminarin. Supplementing laminarin may therefore be a feasible way of increasing the growth of chickens without increasing the bacterial load, all while being beneficial to the environment.