Influence of a wheat diet on mortality of broiler chickens associated with necrotic enteritis

In an experiment to determine methods of incorporating soft winter wheat into broiler diets, a significant increase in mortality was observed in broilers fed wheat in crumbled diets. This increase in mortality was associated with necrotic enteritis with Clostridium perfringens indicated as the causative pathogen and complicated by a coccidiosis outbreak. When yellow corn was used in the diet, mortality was 2.9%. Use of all wheat, ground with a hammer mill, increased mortality to 28.9%. However, roller mill-ground wheat diet resulted in a mortality of 18.1%. When the grain component was approximately 50% wheat and 50% corn, mortality was 12.6% for broilers fed hammer mill-ground wheat and 3.4% for roller mill-ground wheat. Grain and feed were tested for several mycotoxins. Low levels of deoxynivalenol were found in both corn and wheat diets, but no differences between the corn and wheat-based diets were found that would explain the incidence of enteritis.