Evaluation of the mgtC gene on Salmonella Gallinarum pathogenicity in susceptible poultry to fowl typhoid

• Grant number: 19/16198-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: October 01, 2019
• End date: September 30, 2020
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Veterinary Medicine - Animal Pathology
• Principal Investigator: Angelo Berchieri Junior
• Grantee: Bruna Nestlehner de Lima
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Ciências Agrárias e Veterinárias (FCAV). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Jaboticabal. Jaboticabal , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Salmonella Gallinarum biovar Gallinarum (SG) is the etiological agent of fowl typhoid, a disease that affects heavy and semi-heavy poultry lineages of any age. Its dissemination occurs mainly by means of horizontal via throughout the cannibalism act. Due to its highly capability to provoke an acute systemic disease with high mortality and morbidity rates in addition to the difficult to control it, the pathogen is one of the greatest poultry health challenges. Inside the host, the bacterium has several survival mechanisms. Amongst them, the expression of mgtC gene by other serovars, which is clustered in a chromosomal region so-called Salmonella Pathogenicity Island - 3 (SPI-3), has been associated to the pathogen ability to replicates and survives within macrophages, evading the immune system. However, to our knowledge there are no studies involving the importance of SPI-3 genes to SG pathogenicity. We previously showed that a Salmonella Gallinarum biovar Gallinarum strain lacking phoPQ genes became attenuated and therefore was hypothesized that the SPI-3 genes regulation were compromised since the expression of some them occurs by means of PhoPQ system. Thus, the present research project has as objective to evaluate the importance of mgtC gene in Salmonella Gallinarum biovar Gallinarum pathogenicity in susceptible poultry.