Antibody responses in the serum and gut of chicken lines differing in cecal carriage of Salmonella enteritidis

Salmonella frequently causes human foodborne infections. Contaminated products from poultry infected with Salmonella enteritidis are mainly involved. This serovar is able to colonize the gastrointestinal tract and generally produces a chronic asymptomatic carrier state in poultry, except in very young birds. We have developed a model of S. enteritidis carriage in chicks and found that four chicken lines, B13, L2, PA12 and Y11 differ in their cecal colonization by S. enteritidis, whereas their systemic organs are similarly infected. We have monitored the serum and gut antibody responses of these four lines to S. enteritidis for 9 weeks post inoculation (pi). We confirm that S. enteritidis infected the spleens of the four chicken lines similarly, and that it often colonized the ceca at levels significantly higher in B13 and L2 chicks than those of the PA12 and Y11 chicks. The serum IgM and IgG antibody responses were high and the serum IgA antibody responses low. In contrast, the intestinal secretions contained mostly IgA antibodies. The serum IgM antibody values of the four chicken lines were similar. However, the B13 and L2 chicks often had significantly higher serum IgG and IgA antibody responses than PA12 and Y11 chicks. Only the B13 and L2 chicks showed high, persistent levels of IgA antibody in intestinal secretions. These results suggest that most antibody responses are related to cecal colonization by S. enteritidis. They also indicate that factors other than the antibody levels are involved in the control of this colonization. (C) 2003 Published by Elsevier B.V.