Effects of Salmonella enterica serovar Enteritidis on cellular recruitment and cytokine gene expression in caecum of vaccinated chickens.

Although vaccination of poultry is a suitable method to limit human food borne gastroenteritis caused by Salmonella (S.), the immune mechanisms responsible for a longer lasting protection against Salmonella infection in birds are not completely understood. To reveal unique protection-related immune parameters, day-old chicks were vaccinated with a commercial live S. Enteritidis vaccine and challenged with wild-type S. Enteritidis 147N at day 56 of life. The bacterial cell count was determined in gut and liver, while the immune cell composition and cytokine gene expression patterns were analysed by immunohistochemistry and quantitative real-time RT-PCR in caecum samples. The presented data suggest that the vaccine-elicited immune protection against the Salmonella wild-type infection was rather related to the bacterial count in gut mucosa and liver than to the colonisation in gut lumen. The higher number of Salmonella wild-type organisms found in caecal wall and liver of the non-immunised compared to immunised birds after challenge correlated with a more pronounced gene expression rate for IL-8, LITAF, iNOS, IL-12 and IFN-gamma. In contrast, immunised birds exhibited higher amounts of CD8(+) T cells as well as IgA than the non-immunised chickens after S. Enteritidis 147N infection in caecum. The results demonstrated a distinctive immune reaction pattern of previously vaccinated compared to non-vaccinated chickens upon S. Enteritidis wild-type challenge.