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ARS Home » Plains Area » College Station, Texas » Southern Plains Agricultural Research Center » Food and Feed Safety Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #379565
Research Project: Identification of the Ecological Niches and Development of Intervention Strategies to Reduce Pathogenic Foodborne Pathogens in Poultry

Location: Food and Feed Safety Research

Title: A role for the microbiota in the immune phenotype alteration associated with the induction of disease tolerance and persistent asymptomatic infection of Salmonella in the chicken

Author
item LEE, ANNAH - Texas A&M University
item BORTOLUZZI, CRISTIANO - Texas A&M University
item PILLA, RACHEL - Texas A&M University
item Kogut, Michael - Mike

Submitted to: Microorganisms
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 11/25/2020
Publication Date: 11/27/2020
Citation: Lee, A., Bortoluzzi, C., Pilla, R., Kogut, M.H. 2020. A role for the microbiota in the immune phenotype alteration associated with the induction of disease tolerance and persistent asymptomatic infection of Salmonella in the chicken. Microorganisms. 8(12). Article 1879. https://doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms8121879.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms8121879

Interpretive Summary: The chick gut is lined with beneficial bacteria that influence the wellness of the birds in many ways, including helping digest food, making vitamins that the chick uses for health, and stimulating immune function. The pathogen, Salmonella, disrupts the function and number of these beneficial bacteria when it tries to infect the chick. The purpose of this study was to determine what changes to the beneficial bacteria had on function and wellness of the chicks. These results are important to poultry growers who are looking for ways to improve the health of their chicks’ gut so that they can grow better and healthier. Further, this paper describes a way to see what bacteria are growing in the gut of chicks that live in a real chicken house and what Salmonella does to these beneficial bacteria. This will help us understand how these chicks can grow up to have a healthier gut with more beneficial bacteria than chicks without pathogens.

Technical Abstract: Previous studies have shown an immune phenotype reprogramming event occurring between days 2 and 4 in the ceca post-Salmonella challenge. To evaluate the involvement of the cecal microbiota in the phenotype reprogramming, we evaluated how the addition of antibiotics will affect the cecal microbiome. Therefore, the objective of this study was to determine if the antibiotic-mediated changes in the microbiota composition influenced the immune reprogramming induced by S. Enteritidis infection of the chicken cecum. A total of 112 fertile eggs were obtained for each experiment, repeated for a total of three separate times. The ceca and cecal contents were collected on days 2 and 4 post-infection for mRNA expression TaqMan assay and 16S rRNA gene microbiome sequencing, respectively. The results demonstrate the effects of bacitracin on cecal composition and its interaction with Salmonella Enteritidis in young chicks. There is a phenotype change in the Salmonella challenged ceca due to the shifting microbiota from including bacitracin: the phenotypic reprogramming has been altered by adding bacitracin, indicating the addition of bacitracin during infection eliminates the phenotypic reprogramming. These data demonstrate the involvement of the microbiota in reprogramming immune phenotype (disease resistance to disease tolerance) induced by Salmonella in the chicken cecum.