Intestinal colonization and acute immune response in commercial turkeys following inoculation with Campylobacter jejuni constructs encoding antibiotic-resistance markers

Publication date: Available online 1 March 2019Source: Veterinary Immunology and ImmunopathologyAuthor(s): Matthew J. Sylte, Timothy A. Johnson, Ella L. Meyer, Matt H. Inbody, Julian Trachsel, Torey Looft, Leonardo Susta, Zuowei Wu, Qijing ZhangAbstractConsumption of contaminated poultry products is one of the main sources of human campylobacteriosis, of which Campylobacter jejuni subsp. jejuni (C. jejuni) is responsible for approximately 90% of the cases. At slaughter, the ceca of commercial chickens and turkeys are the main anatomical site where C. jejuni asymptomatically colonizes. We have previously colonized commercial turkey poults with different isolates of C. jejuni and evaluated different media to best enumerate Campylobacter from intestinal samples, but the host-response is unknown in turkeys. Enumeration of Campylobacter (colony forming units (cfu)/gram of intestinal contents) can be challenging, and can be confounded if animals are colonized with multiple species of Campylobacter. In order to precisely enumerate the C. jejuni isolate used to experimentally colonize turkeys, constructs of C. jejuni (NCTC 11168) were tagged with different antibiotic resistance markers at the CmeF locus (chloramphenicol (CjCm) or kanamycin (CjK)). We sought to examine the kinetics of intestinal colonization using the antibiotic resistant constructs, and characterize the immune response in cecal tissue of turkeys. In vitro analysis of the tagged antibiotic-resistant constructs demonst...
Source: Veterinary Immunology and Immunopathology - Category: Veterinary Research Source Type: research