New Technology Has Detected More Strains of High-risk Salmonella to Poultry

In the United States, poultry is responsible for more than one in every five instances of salmonella cases.

According to a new study from the University of Georgia, typical techniques of testing chicken from the grocery store may not be enough to detect all strains of the bacterium.

The study, which was published in the journal Applied and Environmental Microbiology, looked at national salmonella data from the United States gathered by the Food Safety Inspection Service of the Department of Agriculture from 2016 to 2020.

Overall incidences of salmonella infection in poultry declined from 9% in 2016 to 6.57% in 2020, according to the study.

During the same period, however, the number of persons infected with salmonella in the United States remained steady.

The high-risk strain of salmonella

(Photo : Leon Neal/Getty Images)

Nikki Shariat, the corresponding author of the study and an assistant professor in the College of Veterinary Medicine, said that when she first began at the Poultry Diagnostic and Research Center four years ago and met with several different poultry companies, several of the things they told her is that the salmonella they discover on the farmlands is not the same type of salmonella they find in the processing plant.

Because of this gap, it's difficult for the poultry industry to determine which varieties of salmonella to target with new vaccinations and other interventions aimed at reducing the quantity of high-risk salmonella in the birds.

The researchers teamed up with the Georgia Poultry Lab Network in Gainesville, Georgia, to look at which salmonella serotypes were prevalent in breeder birds against those found in chicken products.

The Kentucky serotype is the most common and easily identifiable form of the bacteria on Georgia farms, accounting for 80% of all salmonella identified, as per ScienceDaily.

While no salmonella strain is "good," Kentucky isn't known for causing human sickness.

Furthermore, poultry firms appear to be better at removing the Kentucky strain during processing, which might explain why the researchers didn't find the same level of strain in the processed chicken.

Vaccination against the forms of salmonella most commonly connected to human sickness outbreaks is done by poultry veterinarians.

However, to do so efficiently, vets must first determine which types of microbes are present in the farm's birds.

Multiple Salmonella serotypes were detected using the higher-resolution technology utilized in this study, but they were often dominated by serotype Kentucky, according to Shariat.

Their research has now established a framework for identifying such serotypes.

This information offers chicken farmers more information on which to base their salmonella control measures.

Also Read: Researchers Determine How to "Starve" Salmonella

Salmonella in poultry

The birds and the productivity is usually unaffected.

The severity of sickness is determined by both bacterial and host variables, as per SVA.

The serotype and phage type of the bacteria is important, as are the type of animal, age, and overall health state.

Salmonella can cause sickness and death in very young chicks as little as two weeks old. Weakness, loss of appetite, and poor development are some of the symptoms.

The creatures are crammed together near heat sources, their wings drooping and their eyes closed.

Watery diarrhea is also a possibility.

Even if germs are present in adult fowl, illness is seldom evident. Infected hatching eggs can result in reduced hatchability, as well as increased embryo mortality and death in freshly born chickens.

Salmonella is essentially a fecal-oral infection.

Infected birds can recover after a period of time, but some continue to discharge germs in their droppings for months.

When placed on permanent bedding, it is quite hard to clear a salmonella-infected flock of the virus.

Related article: Salmonella Enterica Strain Not Yet Seen on Migratory Wild Birds: Study