Evaluating Salmonella pullorum dissemination and shedding patterns and antibody production in infected chickens
Abstract Background Pullorum disease caused by Salmonella pullorum is one of the most important infectious diseases in the poultry industry, responsible for causing substantial economic losses globally . On farms, the traditional method to detect S. pullorum infection mainly involves the collection...
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Published in | BMC veterinary research Vol. 18; no. 1; pp. 1 - 240 |
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Main Authors | , , , , , , , , , , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
London
BioMed Central Ltd
24.06.2022
BioMed Central BMC |
Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
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Summary: | Abstract
Background
Pullorum disease caused by
Salmonella pullorum
is one of the most important infectious diseases in the poultry industry, responsible for causing substantial economic losses globally
.
On farms, the traditional method to detect
S. pullorum
infection mainly involves the collection of feces and sera to test for antigens and antibodies, respectively, but the regularity of
Salmonella pullorum
dissemination in internal organs and shedding patterns and antibody production in infected chickens remains unclear. Herein we aimed to investigate the dissemination of
S. pullorum
to different organs and bacterial shedding patterns in the faeces as well as serum antibody production post-infection in chickens of different ages.
Result
In this study, the liver and heart of 2-day-old chickens showed the highest copy numbers of
S. pullorum
at 6.4 × 10
6
and 1.9 × 10
6
copies of DNA target sequences/30 mg, respectively. In case of 10-day-old chickens, the percentage of
S. pullorum
fecal shedding (0%–40%) and antibody production (0%–56.6%) markedly fluctuated during the entire experiment; furthermore, in case of 42-week-old chickens, the percentage of birds showing
S. pullorum
shedding in the faeces showed a downward trend (from 63.33% to 6.6% in the oral inoculation group and from 43.3% to 10% in the intraperitoneal injection group), while that of birds showing serum antibody production remained at a high level (38.3% and 80% in the oral inoculation and intraperitoneal injection groups, respectively). We also performed cohabitation experiments, showed that 15% 10-day-old and 3.33% 42-week-old chickens were infected via the horizontal transmission in cohabitation with
S. pullorum
infected chickens, and revealed a high risk of horizontal transmission of
S. pullorum
.
Conclusion
This study systematically evaluated the dissemination of
S. pullorum
in internal organs and bacterial fecal shedding patterns, and antibody production in infected chickens. Collectively, our findings indicate how to effectively screen
S. pullorum
-negative chickens on livestock farms and should also help in the development of measures to control and eradicate
S. pullorum
. |
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Bibliography: | ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23 |
ISSN: | 1746-6148 1746-6148 |
DOI: | 10.1186/s12917-022-03335-z |