With over 1 million estimated cases per year in the United States, foodborne salmonellosis is an important public health issue. Chicken products are frequent sources of foodborne Salmonella infection. These bacteria readily colonize the gastrointestinal tract of broiler chickens, and feed is a known vector. Past research has demonstrated that the survivability of Salmonella in feed is dependent on the serovar and strain. Therefore, the objective of this research was to compare colonization incidence of these two serovars in broiler chicken tissues by administration of feed contaminated with Salmonella enterica serovar Enteritidis (SE) or Salmonella enterica serovar Heidelberg (SH). A comparison was made with equal conditions so that there was no influence of other factors. Birds were inoculated by addition of Salmonella to the feed (1 × 104 colony-forming unit [CFU]/g of feed) at 14 days of age, and the following tissue samples were collected from each bird after grow-out (days 34-41 depending on the trial): abdominal cavity swab, bone marrow swab, cloaca swab, lung swab, breast, bursa and thymus, ceca, crop, kidney, liver and spleen, skin, spinal cord, thigh, and trachea. A higher percentage of birds inoculated with SE were positive in at least one tissue compared with SH (68% and 9%, respectively), and the SE inoculated birds also showed a higher number of positive tissue samples than SH (13.1% and 0.7%, respectively). Recovery of SH was low for all tissue samples. However, recovery of SE was variable between samples, with ceca showing the highest percentage (50%). These results indicate that challenge at day 14 through feed administration results in greater colonization by SE compared with SH, suggesting that monitoring and control methods for Salmonella in feed should focus on SE to have the greatest positive effect.
Keywords: Salmonella Enteritidis; Salmonella Heidelberg; broiler; feed; salmonellosis.