Contribution of flagella and motility to gut colonisation and pathogenicity of Salmonella Enteritidis in the chicken

• Published in: Brazilian journal of microbiology Vol. 48; no. 4; pp. 754 - 759
• Main Authors: Barbosa, Fernanda de Oliveira, Freitas Neto, Oliveiro Caetano de, Batista, Diego Felipe Alves, Almeida, Adriana Maria de, Rubio, Marcela da Silva, Alves, Lucas Bocchini Rodrigues, Vasconcelos, Rosemeire de Oliveira, Barrow, Paul Andrew, Berchieri Junior, Angelo
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English; Portuguese
• Published: Brazil Elsevier Editora Ltda 01.10.2017; Springer Nature B.V; Elsevier; Sociedade Brasileira de Microbiologia
• Subjects: Animals; Chickens; Colonization; Flagella; Flagella - genetics; Flagella - physiology; Flagellum; Foodborne diseases; Gastric motility; Gut colonisation; Ileum; Intestine; Intestines - microbiology; Intestines - pathology; Liver; MICROBIOLOGY; Motility; Mutation; Outbreaks; Pathogenicity; Pathogens; Poultry; Poultry Diseases - microbiology; Poultry Diseases - pathology; Research Paper; Salmonella; Salmonella enteritidis - genetics; Salmonella enteritidis - growth & development; Salmonella enteritidis - pathogenicity; Salmonella enteritidis - physiology; Salmonella Infections, Animal - microbiology; Salmonella Infections, Animal - pathology; Virulence; Virulence factors; Mutation; Gut colonisation; Virulence factors; Poultry; Flagellum
• ISSN: 1517-8382; 1678-4405; 1678-4405
• DOI: 10.1016/j.bjm.2017.01.012

Salmonella Enteritidis causes fowl paratyphoid in poultry and is frequently associated to outbreaks of food-borne diseases in humans. The role of flagella and flagella-mediated motility into host-pathogen interplay is not fully understood and requires further investigation. In this study, one-day-old chickens were challenged orally with a wild-type strain Salmonella Enteritidis, a non-motile but fully flagellated (SE ΔmotB) or non-flagellated (SE ΔfliC) strain to evaluate their ability to colonise the intestine and spread systemically and also of eliciting gross and histopathological changes. SE ΔmotB and SE ΔfliC were recovered in significantly lower numbers from caecal contents in comparison with Salmonella Enteritidis at early stages of infection (3 and 5dpi). The SE ΔmotB strain, which synthesises paralysed flagella, showed poorer intestinal colonisation ability than the non-flagellated SE ΔfliC. Histopathological analyses demonstrated that the flagellated strains induced more intense lymphoid reactivity in liver, ileum and caeca. Thus, in the present study the flagellar structure and motility seemed to play a role in the early stages of the intestinal colonisation by Salmonella Enteritidis in the chicken.