Consumption of contaminated poultry meat is still an important cause of Salmonella infections in humans, according to a paper published in Poultry Science.

Authors Filip van Immerseel and collegues at Ghent Univeristy in Belgium explain that colonisation inhibition occurs when a live Salmonella strain is administered to chickens and subsequently protects against challenge with another Salmonella strain belonging to the same serotype.

They report that a Salmonella Enteritidis mutant (hilAssrAfliG deletion) has previously been proven to reduce colonisation and shedding of a wild-type Salmonella Enteritidis strain in newly hatched broilers after experimental infection.

In this study, they compared two administration routes for this strain.

Administering this strain through drinking water on the first day of life resulted in decreased faecal shedding and caecal colonisation of a wild-type Salmonella Enteritidis challenge strain administered 24 hours later using a seeder-bird model.

When administering the strain by coarse spray on newly hatched broiler chicks, they observed an even more pronounced reduction of caecal colonisation and faecal shedding of the challenge strain ceased during the course of the experiment.

These data suggest that administering this Salmonella Enteritidis strain to newly hatched chicks using a coarse spray is a useful and effective method that reduces colonisation and shedding of a wild-type Salmonella Enteritidis strain after early challenge, concluded van Immerseel and co-authors.

Reference

De Cort W., F. Haesebrouck, R. Ducatelle and F. van Immerseel. 2015. Administration of a Salmonella Enteritidis ΔhilAssrAfliG strain by coarse spray to newly hatched broilers reduces colonization and shedding of a Salmonella Enteritidis challenge strain. Poultry Science. 94: 131-135.

February 2015