Study of the infectivity of saline-stored Campylobacter jejuni for day-oldchicks

The culturability of three Campylobacter jejuni strains and their infectivi ty for day-old chicks were assessed following storage of the strains in sal ine. The potential for colonization of chicks was weakened during the stora ge period and terminated 3 to 1 weeks before the strains became nonculturab le. The results from this study suggest that the role of starved and aged b ut still culturable campylobacters may be diminutive, but even more, that t he role of viable but nonculturable stages in campylobacter epidemiology ma y he negligible. Even high levels of maternally derived anti-campylobacter outer membrane protein serum antibodies in day-old chicks did not protect t he chicks from campylobacter colonization.