The effect of mushroom and pokeweed extract on Salmonella, egg production, and weight loss in molting hens

An experiment was conducted to evaluate the effects of mushroom and pokeweed extract alone or in combination with alfalfa meal on Salmonella spp. population, egg production, and weight loss in laying hens during a 10-d molting period. The trial used 54 active laying hens approximately 77 wk of age that were naturally infected with Salmonella spp. The layers were subjected to 1 of 9 treatment groups, replicated 3 times with 2 hens per replicate cage. The treatment conditions were as follows: 1) full-fed + H20 (FFW), 2) full-fed + mushroom (FFM), 3) full-fed + pokeweed (FFP), 4) nonfed + H 20 (NFW), 5) nonfed + mushroom (NFM), 6) nonfed + pokeweed (NFP), 7) full-fed alfalfa meal + H20 (FFAW), 8) full-fed alfalfa meal + mushroom (FFAM), and 9) full-fed alfalfa meal + pokeweed (FFAP). The results showed that the base-10 logarithm values of Salmonella from the ceca significantly increased (P ≤ 0.05) in treatment NFW (3.48), NFM (3.22), and FFAW (3.33), whereas the greatest reduction was observed in treatment FFAM (2.72). The number of Salmonella bacteria recovered from the crop was significantly greater in the NFW treatment (3.43) and lowest in treatment FFAM (2.62). Treatment FFAM (30.0%) had the lowest BW loss and differed significantly from treatment NFW (42.3%), NFM (39.7%), and NFP (41.5%) but not from FFAW (38.0%) and FFAP (34.0%). Ovary weights for treatments NFW, NFP, FFAM, and FFAP did not differ significantly from each other but did so for NFM and FFAW (38.0%), which had the lowest weight. Return to egg production at 2 mo lagged behind in treatments FFAM, NFP, and FFM more than in any other treatments. At 3 mo, treatments FFAAM and NFW differed from the other treatments. Findings indicate that a greater decrease in the natural Salmonella population in the ceca and crop can be obtained with the combination of full-fed alfalfa plus mushroom extract in molting hens and induce a comparable molt with feed withdrawal. ©2008 Poultry Science Association Inc.