Volume 182, December 2015, Pages 34–37
Highlights
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- We examined the ability of Salmonella to colonize the intestines of 38 heritage chicken breeds.
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- Four breeds were less susceptible to colonization.
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- The decreased susceptibility extended to 10 serovars of Salmonella.
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- Four breeds were highly susceptible to colonization.
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- One breed of commercial chicken was moderately susceptible.
Abstract
Salmonella
are commensal bacteria frequently present in the intestinal tracts of
commercial poultry. Unfortunately, these microbes will contaminate the
flesh of the bird during slaughter, thus creating one of the most
important food safety hazards. It is clear that commercial broilers are
susceptible to intestinal colonization by Salmonella, but it is
unclear if this susceptibility is related to selective breeding for
rapid growth and increased feed efficiency. Since non-commercial
heritage breeds have genetic profiles diverging from the commercial
broiler, we hypothesized that some heritage breeds may exhibit
diminished susceptibility to Salmonella colonization of the
intestine. To test this hypothesis, we experimentally infected 38
heritage breeds and one commercial breed (Cobb 500) with Salmonella enterica. One week after infection, we enumerated the Salmonella
present in the intestinal tracts of the birds.Four breeds (Dark
Cornish, New Hampshire Red, Red Ranger, and Sicilian Buttercup)
exhibited diminished susceptibility while four other breeds (Anacona,
Black Australorpe, Blue Andalusian, and Cuckoo Maran) demonstrated
elevated susceptibility. Thirty-one breeds (including the commercial
chicken breed) demonstrated a moderate susceptibility to Salmonella colonization. It thus appears that a few heritage breeds are hypo-susceptible to colonization by Salmonella
while most of the tested heritage breeds exhibited susceptibility that
is similar to or greater than that observed in a commercial breed of
chicken.
Keywords
- Salmonella;
- Food safety;
- Heritage breed;
- Chicken
Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
