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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 #77361
Title: TRANSFORMED CHICKEN T-CELL LINE PRODUCES LYMPHOKINES WHICH CONFER RESISTANCE TO SALMONELLA ENTERIDITIS ORGAN INVASION IN DAY-OLD TURKEYS

Author
item GENOVESE, KENNETH - TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY
item MOYES, RITA - 6202-30-10
item BOWDEN, LACY - TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY
item LOWRY, VIRGINIA - TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY
item DELOACH, JOHN - 6202-30-10
item Stanker, Larry
item Kogut, Michael - Mike

Submitted to: Research in Veterinary Science
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 3/13/1998
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary: The contamination of poultry products with Salmonella is a food safety concern to the poultry industry and the general public. Past studies in our laboratory have dealt with ways to improve the baby chick's ability to fight off Salmonella infections. We have found that a protein from a white blood cell of the chickens protects newly hatched chicks from Salmonella infections. This experiment uses a transformed or long-lived cell to produce the protective protein. This protective protein prevents Salmonella infections in day-old turkeys and causes an increase in the number of white blood cells in the bird's circulation. This increase in white blood cells is what fights off the Salmonella and prevents an infection. These results are important for the poultry industry because we can stimulate a specific white blood cell to fight off Salmonella infections in young, susceptible turkeys.

Technical Abstract: There is an increased resistance to Salmonella enteriditis (SE) organ invasion in chicks and turkeys injected prophylactically with SE-immune lymphokines (ILK). In the present study, Con-A activated splenic T-cells isolated from SE hyperimmunized hens were transformed in vitro using reticuloendotheliosis virus strain T (REV-T)(CSV). These transformed T- cells were then maintained as a long-term cell line used for the harvest of immune lymphokines (VILK). The efficacy of VILK to protect turkey poults against SE organ invasion and the correlation between organ invasion and peripheral blood heterophilia (PBH) was then evaluated. Three groups of day-old poults were injected ip with either PBS, ILK, or VILK. Thirty minutes post-injection (PI), poults were challenged per os with 5x10**5 cfu SE. At 0, 4, 8, 12 and 24 hr PI, total and differential peripheral blood counts were performed on birds from each group, while at 24 hr PI liver samples were taken from birds in each group to assess SE organ invasion. A significant PBH at 4 hr PI was observed in the ILK- and VILK-treated birds with no such increase found in the PBS injected group. Organ invasion studies found that both the VILK and the ILK significantly decreased SE oprgan invasion during three trials. Correlation analysis revealed a direct relationship between the peripheral blood heterophilia seen at 4 hr PI and the reduction in SE organ invasion seen in the VILK and ILK treatment groups (r=.0.991). These results show that the virally- transformed T-cell line produces lymphokines that result in the same level of peripheral blood heterophilia as the ILK and were equally protective against SE organ invasion as the ILK.