Efficacy of bacteriophage therapy on horizontal transmission of Salmonella Gallinarum in commercial layer chickens

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

A Salmonella Gallinarum(SG)-specific bacteriophage isolated from sewage effluent was used to prevent horizontal transmission of SG in commercial layer chickens. Six-week-old chickens each challenged with 5 × 10？ colony-forming units(cfu) of SG cohabited with contact chickens treated with 106 plaque-forming units(pfu) of bacteriophage prepared by feed additives for 21days before and 21 days after challenge with SG. Mortality was observed for 3 weeks after challenge and SG was re-isolated from the liver, spleen and cecum of chickens after at 3 weeks after challenge. SG re-isolation from organs was decreased and a significant (P ＜ 0.01) reduction in mortality was observed in contact chickens treated with bacteriophage, as compared to untreated contact chickens, indicating that bacteriophage administration in feed additives significantly prevented the horizontal transmission of SG. These results provide important insights into preventive and control strategies against SG infection, and suggest that use of bacteriophages may be a novel, safe and effective plausible alternative to antibiotics for the prevention of SG infection in poultry.