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Research Project: Characterizing Antimicrobial Resistance in Poultry Production Environments

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Title: Plasmid and antibiotic resistance genes present in the ceca of broiler chickens infected with Eimeria spp

Author
item Plumblee Lawrence, Jodie
item Oladeinde, Adelumola - Ade
item FULLER, ALBERTA - University Of Georgia
item REKAYA, ROMDHANE - University Of Georgia
item AGGREY, SAMUEL - University Of Georgia

Submitted to: International Poultry Scientific Forum
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 12/2/2019
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Eimeria is a genus of parasites that can cause coccidiosis in poultry. The onset of this disease has been characterized with an imbalance in the microbiome of chickens infected, however little is known of the resistome (antimicrobial resistance genes and plasmids) associated with coccidiosis. The goal of this study was to investigate changes in the broiler gut resistome that are correlated with Eimeria infection. To address this, male chicks of equal numbers of Cobb500 and Athens Canadian Random Bred (ACRB) genotypes were raised in coccidian free rooms under standard husbandry management. Cobb500 is a commercial meat-type strain developed by Cobb Vantress Inc., which has been selected for growth and feed efficiency. The ACRB is an unselected control population that has been compared with commercial broilers in numerous studies. At 14 days of age, the chicks were randomly assigned to 6 treatments groups in a 2 x 3 factorial design, with 7 replicates per treatment, and 10 birds per replicate. The treatment effects consisted of bird genotypes (ACRB or COBB) and three infection levels (oral gavage of sporulated E. acervulina oocysts, mixed culture of sporulated E. acervulina, E. maxima and E. tenella or distilled water). Birds were fed on a non-medicated grower diet and given food and water ad libitum. At 6 days post infection (dpi), 5 birds from each treatment group were randomly sampled and their ceca were removed and frozen for further analysis. DNA was extracted from 250 mg of cecal contents and used in TaqMan®-based real-time qPCR assays targeting a total of 39 genes including 27 antibiotic resistance genes/plasmids, total bacteria (n =1), Campylobacter spp. (n = 3), Salmonella (n =1), E. coli (n =2), Enterococcus spp. (n =2) , Staphylococcus (n =1) and Clostridium (n =2). A principal component analysis revealed that the concentration of total bacteria, E. coli and antimicrobial resistance genes/plasmids (blaTEM, ermB and IncI1) could explain ~ 64.2 % of the total variability in our data. This observed variability was significantly influenced by bird genotype rather than the Eimeria strain used for infection. This result suggests that bird genotype and Eimeria infection may perturb the chicken gut resistome in different ways.