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Title: COLONIZATION OF RERPODUCTIVE TRACT AND DEPOSITION INSIDE EGGS LAID BY HENS INFECTED WITH SALMONELLA ENTERITIDIS OR S. HEIDELBERG

Author
item Gast, Richard
item Guraya, Rupinder - Rupa
item Guard, Jean
item Holt, Peter
item Moore, Randle

Submitted to: Poultry Science Association Meeting Abstract
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 5/1/2006
Publication Date: 7/15/2006
Citation: Gast, R.K., Guraya, R., Bouldin, J.G., Holt, P.S., Moore, R.W. 2006. Colonization of rerpoductive tract and deposition inside eggs laid by hens infected with salmonella enteritidis or s. heidelberg (abstract). Poultry Science Association Meeting. 85:(1):134

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Internal contamination of eggs by Salmonella enteritidis has been a significant source of human illness for several decades and is the focus of a recently proposed FDA regulatory plan. Salmonella heidelberg has also been identified as an egg-transmitted human pathogen. The deposition of Salmonella strains inside eggs is a consequence of reproductive tissue colonization in infected laying hens, but the relationship between colonization of specific regions of the reproductive tract and deposition in different locations within eggs is not well documented. In the present study, groups of laying hens were experimentally infected with large oral doses of S. heidelberg, S. enteritidis phage type 13a, or S. enteritidis phage type 14b. For all of these strains, the overall frequency of ovarian colonization (34%) was significantly higher than the frequency of isolation from either the upper (23%) or lower (18%) regions of the oviduct. No significant differences were observed in the frequency of Salmonella isolation from egg yolk or albumen (4.0% and 3.3%, respectively). Some significant differences between strains were observed in the frequency of isolation from eggs, but not in the frequency or patterns of isolation from reproductive organs. Accordingly, although the ability of these Salmonella strains to colonize different regions of the reproductive tract in laying hens was reflected in deposition in both yolk and albumen, there was no indication that any specific affinity of individual strains for particular regions of this tract produced distinctive patterns of deposition in eggs.