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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 #226728
Title: The paternal effect of Campylobacter jejuni colonization in ceca in broilers

Author
item LI, X. - TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY
item Swaggerty, Christina - Christi
item Kogut, Michael - Mike
item CHIANG, H. - TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY
item WANG, Y. - TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY
item Genovese, Kenneth - Ken
item He, Louis
item Stern, Norman
item PEVZNER, IGAL - COBB-VANTRESS,INC.,AR
item ZHOU, HUAIJUN - TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY

Submitted to: Poultry Science
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 5/2/2008
Publication Date: 10/10/2008
Citation: Li, X., Swaggerty, C.L., Kogut, M.H., Chiang, H., Wang, Y., Genovese, K.J., He, H., Stern, N.J., Pevzner, I.Y., Zhou, H. 2008. The paternal effect of Campylobacter jejuni colonization in ceca in broilers. Poultry Science. 87:1742-1747.

Interpretive Summary: Campylobacter jejuni (CJ) is a bacterium and is one of the most common causes of severe diarrhea and food poisoning in humans. Chickens are believed to be the main source of CJ infections. Baby chickens are very susceptible to bacterial infections. We wanted to find out if there were different types of chickens that were more resistant to CJ infections. The objective of this research was to compare different lines of baby chicks (A, B, C, and D) to see which line was best able to resist a CJ infection. We found that chicks from lines A and D were more resistant to CJ than chicks from lines B and C. These experiments are important to the commercial poultry breeders because we have shown that chickens can be selected for an increased resistance to CJ infections. A resistant chicken is likely going to be stronger and will fight off infections better, therefore, people are less likely to get an infection from eating contaminated poultry.

Technical Abstract: Campylobacter jejuni (C. jejuni) is one of the most common causes of acute enteritis worldwide. Chickens are believed to be the main reservoir of C. jejuni. The role that host genetics plays in resistance/susceptible to C. jejuni colonization in broilers is still not clear. Day-old broilers from two parental lines (A and B) and their F1 reciprocal crosses (C and D) were challenged orally with 10**5 cfu of C. jejuni to address the role of genetics in determining resistance/susceptible to C. jejuni colonization in broilers. Cloacal swabs were collected on 6, 10, and 13 day post-inoculation (dpi), and cecal contents cultured for C. jejuni on 7 and 14 dpi. The number of C. jejuni colonies in the cloacal swabs and cecal contents of each bird were recorded at each timepoint. Significantly fewer bacteria were found in the cecal contents from line A than B (P less than 0.05) and cross D (A female ×B male) when compared to corss C (A male ×B female) at both 7 and 14 dpi. There was a significant correlation between C. jejuni counts in cloacal swabs and that in cecal contents. The results indicated that a paternal effect might be one of the important genetic factors influencing resistance to C. jejuni colonization in broilers.