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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 #81917
Title: THE CHEMOSTAT AS AN IN VITRO MODEL OF THE AVIAN GASTRO-INTESTINAL TRACT

Author
item Young, Colin
item Nisbet, David
item Stanker, Larry

Submitted to: Microbial Ecology International Symposium
Publication Type: Proceedings
Publication Acceptance Date: 7/25/1997
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Administering native intestinal microflora to newly hatched chicks protects against cecal Salmonella colonization, and is known as competitive exclusion. We have recently demonstrated that such a stable CE culture, CF3, contains 29 bacterial strains representing 10 genera. Broiler chicks treated with CF3 are protected against Salmonella colonization of the ceca, and this protection is correlated with elevated levels of the volatile fatty acid, propionic acid, in the cecal contents of treated chicks. We have produced and characterized monoclonal antibodies to six of the bacterial species contained in the CF3 culture, namely Bifidobacteria spp., Enterococcus avium, Eubacteria spp., Fusobacteria spp., Propionibacteria granulosum, and Veillonella spp. Using these monoclonal antibodies, we have enumerated bacteria in the cecae of test birds administered CF3 on the day-of-hatch. Additionally, the same bacterial species were enumerated in continuous flow chemostat cultures of CF3. Results indicated that both Enterococcus avium and Propionibacteria granulosum replicate to high numbers in both the cecae of CF3 treated test chicks and in chemostats inoculated with CF3. Taken together it is possible that the chemostat could be used as an in vitro model of the avian gastrointestinal tract for Salmonella colonization.