Time to Cluck Bye to Salmonella

Concern for use of antibiotics in animal production soars sky high and once again, scientists are scratching their heads and trying to develop new ways for combating the never ending battle between human & animal health and the air-borne pathogen, salmonella.

The trend against antibiotics is steering scientists down a new and exciting path; a path that has opened new doors for chicken selection producers. This may mean that salmonella will no longer pose such a prominent threat in our food chain and production systems.

The detection of salmonella in chickens is both costly and difficult. Along with being an extreme health hazard, the eradication of salmonella is of a very high priority. The push for breeding of salmonella-resistant chickens is of great importance and many studies are currently underway with the aim of pin-pointing either traits on specific chromosomes or potentially gene expression involved in resistance.

In one particular study, chicken progeny where examined from an inbred population of one line of chickens. It is suggested that the substitution of a nucleotide in the DNA resulted in an amino acid change. This discovery is considered evidence of the fact that chickens inherit the complex trait which inhibits the infection of Salmonella tryhimurium.

Selection for salmonella-resistant chickens will not only increase the health of production populations, but will also reduce the potential entry of disease-causing bacteria in our food chain and production systems. However scientists are still making new discoveries and it will only be a matter of time before we will be able to cluck bye to salmonella.

Written by 41777574

References:Iowa State University Animal Industry Report 2005, Genes for Resistance to Salmonella in Poultry, viewed 27 June 2008, http://www.ans.iastate.edu/report/air/2005pdf/2017.pdf.

INRA press service 2005, Breeding of salmonella-resistant chickens, viewed 27 June 2008, http://www.international.inra.fr/press/salmonella_resistant_chickens.

Genome Research 1997, ‘Resistance to Salmonellosis in the Chicken Is Linked to NRAMP1 and TNC’, Genome Reserch, Cold Spring Harbor Labratory Press, vol. 7, pp. 693-704