Dietary alfalfa effects on chicken cecal bacterial communities during coccidiosis

Antibiotic-free poultry production and increased resistance to approved pharmaceuticals to prevent or treat avian coccidiosis caused by parasitic Eimeria spp. has driven research into plant extracts as potential bioactive ingredients to address this issue. Previous work has demonstrated that lipid-soluble compounds in late-cutting alfalfa may beneficially modulate bacterial communities in mice during bacterial challenge. The purpose of this work was to evaluate if late-cutting alfalfa hay or lipid-soluble extracts of late-cutting alfalfa could modulate broiler chicken cecal microbial communities during coccidiosis challenge.