Prophylactic targeting gut neuroimmunological axis to increase resistance to bacteria in layers

Poultry serve as a major reservoir for bacterial Enterobacteriaceae pathogens like Salmonella and Escherichia coli, which are a food safety concern. Although many probiotics are beneficial to poultry productivity, they induce poor host antimicrobial responses against enteric pathogens. We showed that some probiotics can even increase the level of Enterobacteriaceae in the chicken gut by increasing the level of norepinephrine. Furthermore, some bacteria like Salmonella actively promote immunotolerance in the chicken gut, which prevents antibacterial host responses and subsequently results in fecal Salmonella shedding and contamination of poultry products. Thus, novel prophylactics which can stimulate host intestinal responses and overcome these immunotolerant mechanisms to clear intestinal Enterobacteriaceae like Salmonella are needed. Our study demonstrates that prophylactics can alter intestinal immunological responses via neurochemical and metabolic pathways to improve bacterial resistance. These findings provide compelling evidence that targeting the neuroimmunological axis can be an effective strategy to minimize Salmonella persistence in poultry and improve food safety.

Key Words: gut, immunotolerance, prophylactics, neurochemicals, bacterial resistance.

Presented at the 9th Symposium on Gut Health in Production of Food Animals, St. Louis, USA, 2021. For information on the next edition, click here.