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ARS Home » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #86020
Title: SALMONELLOSIS OUTBREAK AND SUBSEQUENT SUBCLINICAL INFECTION IN A NEBRASKA BEEF HERD ATTRIBUTABLE TO CLONAL SALMONELLA ISOLATES OF IDENTICAL PFGE GENOTYPE BUT VARIABLE SEROLOGIC PHENOTYPE

Author
item KEEN, JAMES
item SNELL, ROBERT - BURWELL VET. HOSPITAL
item HE, YONGSHENG - UNIVERSAL HLTH WATCH, INC
item LAEGREID, WILLIAM

Submitted to: Meeting Abstract
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 10/7/1997
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: An outbreak of clinical salmonellosis in a 150 head beef cow-calf herd in the Nebraska sandhills was identified by the sudden death of several cows in summer 1996. Over the following year (8/96 to 8/97), no additional clinical cases of salmonellosis occurred and feces and sera from all cows and calves were collected quarterly. Feces were cultured for Salmonella and sera were tested for anti-Salmonella antibodies by blocking ELISA using anti-Salmonella monoclonal antibodies. Initially, a majority of cows and calves were fecal-culture Salmonella positive. Four Salmonella serovars were isolated from the herd including two serogroup B [S. typhimurium (ST) and S. typhimurium copenhagen (STC)], and two serogroup C1 [S. thompson, and S. oranienburg]. Most cows and calves were infected with ST or STC, and many cattle were infected with both ST and STC at a given sampling time. Fecal prevalence rapidly decreased during winter until only a single cow was fecal-positive by 1/97. Pulse-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) patterns of all ST and STC isolates from the herd were identical; PFGE patterns from the C1 isolates were different from each other and from the ST/STC. These data suggest that the outbreak and subclinical infections were likely attributable to a single genotype ST-STC clone with the capability (by an unidentified mechanism) to vary its O-antigenic factors and thereby vary its serotype between ST and STC.