A group of researchers in Hungary
has tested the efficacy of fermented wheat germ extract (FWGE) in chickens
challenged with mycoplasma gallisepticum
(MG). They found that fermented wheat germ extract was as effective against MG
as the well known anti mycoplasma drug, tiamulin. Fermented wheat germ extract
is a standardised extract of wheat fermented by the yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae (Immunovet-HBM, Biomedicin Co. Ltd,
Hungary).
The study used 90 three week old
chickens (initially free of MG and M.
synoviae) and exposed them to aerosol infection of MG. For 9 days, one
group (30 birds) received a diet containing fermented wheat germ extract
(3.0g/kg feed), a second group with tiamulin (200mg active ingredient/kg feed),
and a third group was untreated. The fourth group was exposed to PBS aerosol as
a negative control. On day 9, all chickens were slaughtered and examined for
the presence of gross and histological lesions, the presence of the challenge
strain in the organs and specific antibodies in the serum.
In the groups treated with fermented
wheat germ extract and with tiamulin, the chickens remained clinically healthy
and there were no significant differences between the two treatments in term of
bodyweight gain or feed conversion. The number of birds with gross lesions (15
and 11, respectively) and lesion scores (25 and 25, respectively) of the fermented
wheat germ extract and tiamulin treated groups were significantly lower than in
the infected untreated group (25 birds, lesion score of 190). No mycoplasma was
reisolated from other organs in the fermented wheat germ extract treated birds,
and the number of mycoplasma isolations from the respiratory tract samples was
less frequent (10) than from the infected untreated group (64), in which 35
samples from other internal organs were also positive. Twenty percent of the
birds treated with fermented wheat germ extract showed serological response
with a 5% reaction score, whereas in the infected, untreated group, 83% of
birds were reactors, with a 63% reaction score.
