Effects of orally administered Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus on the well-being and Salmonella colonization of young chicks

Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus is a bacterium which preys upon and kills Gram-negative bacteria, including the zoonotic pathogens Escherichia coli and Salmonella. Bdellovibrio has potential as a biocontrol agent, but no reports of it being tested in living animals have been published, and no data on whe...

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Main Authors: Atterbury, Robert J., Hobley, Laura, Till, Robert, Lambert, Carey, Capeness, Michael J., Lerner, Thomas R., Fenton, Andrew K., Barrow, Paul, Sockett, R. Elizabeth
Format: Article
Published: American Society for Microbiology. 2011
Online Access:https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/45239/
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author Atterbury, Robert J.
Hobley, Laura
Till, Robert
Lambert, Carey
Capeness, Michael J.
Lerner, Thomas R.
Fenton, Andrew K.
Barrow, Paul
Sockett, R. Elizabeth
author_facet Atterbury, Robert J.
Hobley, Laura
Till, Robert
Lambert, Carey
Capeness, Michael J.
Lerner, Thomas R.
Fenton, Andrew K.
Barrow, Paul
Sockett, R. Elizabeth
author_sort Atterbury, Robert J.
building Nottingham Research Data Repository
collection Online Access
description Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus is a bacterium which preys upon and kills Gram-negative bacteria, including the zoonotic pathogens Escherichia coli and Salmonella. Bdellovibrio has potential as a biocontrol agent, but no reports of it being tested in living animals have been published, and no data on whether Bdellovibrio might spread between animals are available. In this study, we tried to fill this knowledge gap, using B. bacteriovorus HD100 doses in poultry with a normal gut microbiota or predosed with a colonizing Salmonella strain. In both cases, Bdellovibrio was dosed orally along with antacids. After dosing non-Salmonella-infected birds with Bdellovibrio, we measured the health and well-being of the birds and any changes in their gut pathology and culturable microbiota, finding that although a Bdellovibrio dose at 2 days of age altered the overall diversity of the natural gut microbiota in 28-day-old birds, there were no adverse effects on their growth and well-being. Drinking water and fecal matter from the pens in which the birds were housed as groups showed no contamination by Bdellovibrio after dosing. Predatory Bdellovibrio orally administered to birds that had been predosed with a gut-colonizing Salmonella enterica serovar Enteritidis phage type 4 strain (an important zoonotic pathogen) significantly reduced Salmonella numbers in bird gut cecal contents and reduced abnormal cecal morphology, indicating reduced cecal inflammation, compared to the ceca of the untreated controls or a nonpredatory ΔpilA strain, suggesting that these effects were due to predatory action. This work is a first step to applying Bdellovibrio therapeutically for other animal, and possibly human, infections.
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spelling nottingham-452392020-05-04T20:23:10Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/45239/ Effects of orally administered Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus on the well-being and Salmonella colonization of young chicks Atterbury, Robert J. Hobley, Laura Till, Robert Lambert, Carey Capeness, Michael J. Lerner, Thomas R. Fenton, Andrew K. Barrow, Paul Sockett, R. Elizabeth Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus is a bacterium which preys upon and kills Gram-negative bacteria, including the zoonotic pathogens Escherichia coli and Salmonella. Bdellovibrio has potential as a biocontrol agent, but no reports of it being tested in living animals have been published, and no data on whether Bdellovibrio might spread between animals are available. In this study, we tried to fill this knowledge gap, using B. bacteriovorus HD100 doses in poultry with a normal gut microbiota or predosed with a colonizing Salmonella strain. In both cases, Bdellovibrio was dosed orally along with antacids. After dosing non-Salmonella-infected birds with Bdellovibrio, we measured the health and well-being of the birds and any changes in their gut pathology and culturable microbiota, finding that although a Bdellovibrio dose at 2 days of age altered the overall diversity of the natural gut microbiota in 28-day-old birds, there were no adverse effects on their growth and well-being. Drinking water and fecal matter from the pens in which the birds were housed as groups showed no contamination by Bdellovibrio after dosing. Predatory Bdellovibrio orally administered to birds that had been predosed with a gut-colonizing Salmonella enterica serovar Enteritidis phage type 4 strain (an important zoonotic pathogen) significantly reduced Salmonella numbers in bird gut cecal contents and reduced abnormal cecal morphology, indicating reduced cecal inflammation, compared to the ceca of the untreated controls or a nonpredatory ΔpilA strain, suggesting that these effects were due to predatory action. This work is a first step to applying Bdellovibrio therapeutically for other animal, and possibly human, infections. American Society for Microbiology. 2011-08 Article PeerReviewed Atterbury, Robert J., Hobley, Laura, Till, Robert, Lambert, Carey, Capeness, Michael J., Lerner, Thomas R., Fenton, Andrew K., Barrow, Paul and Sockett, R. Elizabeth (2011) Effects of orally administered Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus on the well-being and Salmonella colonization of young chicks. Applied and Environmental Microbiology, 77 (16). pp. 5794-5803. ISSN 1098-5336 http://aem.asm.org/content/77/16/5794 doi:10.1128/AEM.00426-11 doi:10.1128/AEM.00426-11
spellingShingle Atterbury, Robert J.
Hobley, Laura
Till, Robert
Lambert, Carey
Capeness, Michael J.
Lerner, Thomas R.
Fenton, Andrew K.
Barrow, Paul
Sockett, R. Elizabeth
Effects of orally administered Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus on the well-being and Salmonella colonization of young chicks
title Effects of orally administered Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus on the well-being and Salmonella colonization of young chicks
title_full Effects of orally administered Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus on the well-being and Salmonella colonization of young chicks
title_fullStr Effects of orally administered Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus on the well-being and Salmonella colonization of young chicks
title_full_unstemmed Effects of orally administered Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus on the well-being and Salmonella colonization of young chicks
title_short Effects of orally administered Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus on the well-being and Salmonella colonization of young chicks
title_sort effects of orally administered bdellovibrio bacteriovorus on the well-being and salmonella colonization of young chicks
url https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/45239/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/45239/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/45239/