Evaluation the efficacy of oral immunization of broiler chickens with a recombinant Lactobacillus casei vaccine vector expressing the Carboxy-terminal fragment of α-toxin from Clostridium perfringens

BACKGROUND: Clostridium perfringens (C. perfringens) is a serious anaerobic enteric pathogen causing necrotic enteritis (NE) in broiler chickens. Following the ban on antibiotics as growth promoters in animal feedstuffs, there has been a remarkable rise in occurrence of NE which resulted in considering alternative approaches, particularly vaccination. The objective of this work was to evaluate the recombinant Lactobacillus casei (L. casei) expressing the C-terminal domain of α-toxin from C. perfringens as a potential probiotic-based vaccine candidate to immunize the broiler chickens against NE. RESULTS: The broiler chickens immunized orally with recombinant vaccine strain were significantly protected against experimental NE challenge, and developed specific serum anti-α antibodies. Additionally, the immunized birds showed higher body weight gains compared with control groups during the challenge experiment. CONCLUSIONS: The current study showed that oral immunization of broiler chickens with a safe probiotic-based vector vaccine expressing α-toxin from C. perfringens could provide protective immunity against NE in birds. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12917-023-03566-8.