Bacterial colonization and endotoxin activity during experimental acute fowl typhoid in chickens

Bacterial colonization and endotoxin production were investigated before and after experimental Salmonella gallinarum infection in 8-week-old female broiler chickens. These parameters were assayed by means of colony forming units test (CFU) and the Limulus Amebocyte Lysate test (LAL), respectively. Birds were infected per os with 1,5 x 10(9) CFU/ml of wild strain of S. gallinarum isolated from a dead hen. Approximately 1,5 x 10(2); 1,3 x 10(2) and 1,2 x 10(2) CFU of S. gallinarum were recorded from 1 g of liver, 1 g of spleen and 1 ml of blood from the chickens on day 1 post infection. By day 4 corresponding data were 3,7 x 10(4); 4,8 x 10(3) and 1,1 x 10(3) respectively and on day 7 10(5) CFU were present in all three specimen types. The liver and spleen of dead birds were contaminated with more than 10(7) CFU per g. The endotoxin from S. gallinarum was found to have an activity of 1,5; 12,0 and 15,0 endotoxin units (EU)/ml on day 1, 4 and 7 after infection, respectively. No endotoxin activity was established in the blood of the control group (before infection) by the LAL test. This is the first time the connection between the amount of live S. gallinarum in the blood, liver and the circulating level of endotoxin in the blood during the infectious stage of experimental acute fowl typhoid, has been demonstrated.