Effect of two different molting procedures on a Salmonella enteritidis infection.
Previous studies have shown that inducing a molt using feed removal exacerbated an intestinal infection by Salmonella enteritidis (SE). The current study was conducted to determine whether inducing a molt using a molt diet would still cause a pause in egg laying but not exacerbate an intestinal SE infection. In Experiments 1 and 2, hens were either provided ad libitum access to layer feed (control), fed 45 g molt diet (molt-feed) daily, or deprived of feed for 14 d (molted), and were orally infected with 1 x 10(7) SE on Day 4 of molt. Egg lay ceased in hens subjected to both molt treatments. The percentage of hens shedding SE did not differ among treatment groups in Experiment 1, whereas in Experiment 2 the molted hens had significantly higher shed rates than the controls on Days 10, 17, and 24 postinfection and the molt-feed hens on Days 17 and 24 postinfection. Compared with both fed groups of hens, the molted hens shed significantly more SE in Experiment 1 on Day 10 postinfection, and in Experiment 2 the molted hens shed significantly more SE on all 4 sampling days. In Experiment 3, subgroups of hens within each treatment group received serial 10-fold dilutions of SE and intestinal shedding of the organism in each subgroup was determined 7 d later. The 50% infectious dose (ID50) was calculated for each treatment group from these shedding results.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
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USDA, Agricultural Research Service, Southeast Poultry Research Laboratory, Athens, Georgia 30605.
Buhr
R J
RJ
Cunningham
D L
DL
Porter
R E
RE
D000818:Animals; D002645:Chickens / Q000382:microbiology*; D005241:Feathers / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D005508:Food Deprivation; D005526:Food, Formulated; D011201:Poultry Diseases / Q000382:microbiology*; D012481:Salmonella Infections, Animal / Q000382:microbiology*; D012477:Salmonella enteritidis