title: Bacteriophage-induced reduction in Salmonella Enteritidis counts in the crop of broiler chickens undergoing preslaughter feed withdrawal.
abstract: Salmonella food poisoning is a public health problem. Feed withdrawal from broiler chickens before slaughter can favor the multiplication of Salmonella in the cecum and crop of contaminated animals and subsequently lead to contamination of carcasses in the processing plant. In the present study, a cocktail of lytic bacteriophages isolated from sewage water was orally administered to 45-d-old broiler chickens 1 h after they received an oral dose of 10(7) cfu/mL Salmonella enterica subspecies enterica serotype Enteritidis. Immediately after phage administration and 30 min, 1, 3, 6, and 12 h thereafter, groups of chicken were killed. Ceca and crops were analyzed for the presence of Salmonella. At 3 h posttreatment, there were 10(3) cfu/g and 10(1) cfu/g of cecal and crop suspension, respectively. At 6 h after treatment, the number of Salmonella was 10(3) cfu/g in the cecal suspension, but below the detection limit in the crops. Our results suggest that bacteriophage therapy may be able to reduce the contamination of chicken carcasses by reducing the preslaughter load of Salmonella in the birds.
authors.affiliation: São Paulo State University, Clinical Sciences, Botucatu, São Paulo, 18618-000 Brazil.
authors.forename: Guilherme Augusto Marietto
authors.initials: GA
authors.lastname: Gonçalves
authors.forename: Tais Cremasco
authors.initials: TC
authors.lastname: Donato
authors.forename: Ana Angelita Sampaio
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Baptista
authors.forename: Isadora Mainieri de Oliveira
authors.initials: IM
authors.lastname: Corrêa
authors.forename: Keila Carolina Ornellas Dutka
authors.initials: KC
authors.lastname: Garcia
authors.forename: Raphael Lucio
authors.initials: RL
authors.lastname: Andreatti Filho
mesh_terms: D000003:Abattoirs; D000818:Animals; D002645:Chickens; D003426:Crop, Avian / Q000382:microbiology*; D005508:Food Deprivation; D011201:Poultry Diseases / Q000382:microbiology*; D012481:Salmonella Infections, Animal; D012483:Salmonella Phages / Q000502:physiology*; D012477:Salmonella enteritidis / Q000821:virology*
keywords: Salmonella Enteritidis; bacteriophage therapy; biotechnology; public health