BACTERIOLOGICAL MONITORING OF SALMONELLA-ENTERITIDIS CARRIER BIRDS AFTER DECONTAMINATION USING ENROFLOXACIN, COMPETITIVE-EXCLUSION AND MOVEMENT OF BIRDS
F. Humbert et al., BACTERIOLOGICAL MONITORING OF SALMONELLA-ENTERITIDIS CARRIER BIRDS AFTER DECONTAMINATION USING ENROFLOXACIN, COMPETITIVE-EXCLUSION AND MOVEMENT OF BIRDS, Veterinary record, 141(12), 1997, pp. 297-299
Two hundred and forty, four-week-old laying birds naturally infected w
ith Salmonella enteritidis PT33 (Pasteur Institute phage typing system
) were randomly divided twice (before and during the treatments) to ob
tain four separately housed groups of 60 birds and to study the effica
cy of three decontamination treatments: enrofloxacin either with or wi
thout the movement of birds to a clean area, and enrofloxacin combined
with movement of birds and a competitive exclusion treatment, The con
trol group remained untreated. In each group contamination with S ente
ritidis was checked bacteriologically, every week from two months befo
re until two months after the treatments began, All the samples taken
from all the birds before the treatments began were S enteritidis-posi
tive. After the treatments it was not possible to isolate salmonella e
ither from the environment or from the faeces of the three treated gro
ups. All the birds were humanely sacrificed at 22 weeks of age and sam
ples of liver, spleen, ovaries and caeca were analysed for the presenc
e of salmonella. The results demonstrated that although antibiotic the
rapy, the movement of birds into a clean house and competitive exclusi
on, either combined or not, had some efficacy in reducing infection le
vels, it was not possible to decontaminate all the birds completely.