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Educational Resources Available -- Campylobacter Interventions |
Several outreach and educational resources have been developed to help raise awareness of the interventions needed on the farm and at the processing plants to minimize Campylobacter. |
National Symposium on Campylobacter Intervention |
National Symposium on Campylobacter Intervention |
Gut microbiota composition influences the outcome of Campylobacter jejuni colonization in chickens |
A study was conducted to evaluate the influence of the intestinal microbiota on C. jejuni colonization and local host immune response in chickens under laboratory conditions. Birds were treated with an antibiotic cocktail (broilers) or raised under germ-free (SPF layers) conditions. Following oral inoculation with C. jejuni at 18-days of age, colonization levels in the ceca, liver and spleen, and the local immune responses in the gut were compared between different groups. The results showed the birds with a conventional gut microbiota were significantly less susceptible to Campylobacter colonization in the ceca, spleen and liver compared with the birds with an altered gut microbiota. On the contrary, the local gut immune responses were substantially more prominent in birds with the altered microbiota composition. In addition, C. jejuni induced histopathological intestinal lesions only in the microbiota-altered birds. These results show that the gut microbiota composition significantly affect the colonization (and pathology) of chickens by C. jejuni both locally within the ceca as well as systemically in the spleen and liver. Once identified, key members of the microbiota responsible for this observation could be used as potential prebiotics for control of Campylobacter in poultry. |