Technical Abstract: Clostridium perfringens (CP) is the etiologic agent of Necrotic enteritis (NE) and is ubiquitous in nature. The incidence of NE has increased in poultry flocks that have stopped using antibiotic growth promoters. The mechanisms of colonization of CP and the factors involved in onset of NE are not fully understood. Previously, our laboratory has demonstrated that lactose could potentially reduce Salmonella and CP in ceca of poultry. In the present investigation, we hypothesized that dietary lactose would reduce the clinical signs of NE and could be used as an alternative to antibiotics. In Exp. 1, day-of-hatch broilers were fed either a non-lactose control diet, a diet with 2.5% lactose, or a diet with 4.5% lactose throughout the experiment. Birds were administered CP (10**7 cfu/mL) daily via oral gavage for three consecutive days starting on d 17. When evaluating the intestinal lesions associated with NE, birds fed 2.5% lactose had significantly lower (P < 0.05) lesion scores (0.70 ± .52) compared to the control (1.55 ± .52) or the 4.5% lactose (1.60 ± .52) fed groups. Microbial population analysis suggest that lactose did not affect bacterial populations during the 21d evaluation. In a replicate experiment the overall lesion scores, were significantly (P > 0.05) reduced in birds fed 2.5% lactose compared to the birds fed the control diet with mean lesion scores of 1.10 ± .73 and 1.80 ± .73 respectively. These experiments suggest that lactose could be used as a potential alternative to growth promoting antibiotics to help control this costly disease.