4 February 2011
Aviguard is known for its beneficial effect in chickens and many millions of doses a year are used by commercial poultry producers to help improve intestinal health thereby reducing problems such as enteritis. However, news reached us recently of a rather different application which has benefitted a threatened species of wild bird.
Aviguard has been helping in the Corncrake Reintroduction Project which is trying to increase the numbers of corncrakes. Aviguard® is a unique freeze-dried product derived from healthy, pathogen-free birds. It prevents colonisation of the gastro-intestinal tract of poultry and gamebirds by pathogenic bacteria.
Corncrakes have been declining in Britain for the last 100 years, and modern agricultural methods such as mechanized mowing have been identified as a primary cause. The Corncrake Reintroduction Project aims to re-establish the corncrake as a species nesting regularly in England.
The Zoological Society of London having heard about the competitive exclusion product Aviguard contacted the manufacturers Microbial Developments of Malvern to obtain some product and carried out a trial to see if it could help combat Enterococcus infection.
The study was a great success with no deaths associated with Enterococcus hirae in 2010. It will be repeated in 2011 to investigate further the use of this product in corncrake captive rearing.
Joanna Reynard a 2010 MSc graduate in Wild Animal Health says that "this study supports the value of CE (competitive exclusion) products in competitively excluding Enterococcus hirae. CE products have the potential to be used on other avian reintroduction programmes in the future. In addition to controlling pathogenic bacteria they could be used prior to a stressful event such as transport, in the face of an infection or even to establish normal gut flora after a course of antibiotics."
