Recently, researchers from Veterinary Medicines and Immunomodulators Innovation Research Team of the Institute of Feed Research of CAAS studied the drug resistance of clinical Salmonella Thompson and its pathogenicity to poultry. The results of the study are of great significance to evaluate the drug-resistant transmission ability of Salmonella Thompson and its harm to poultry breeding.

Salmonella Thompson, an important foodborne pathogen, is rarely found to be pathogenic to poultry. But during Salmonella surveillance in farms, the Salmonella Thompson, a common Non-typhoid Salmonella, was separated and found that has pathogenic to avian embryos. Therefore, this study aimed to explore antimicrobial resistance and pathogenicity of clinical S. Thompson. Evolutionary analysis, molecular typing, antimicrobial resistance, and virulence genes based on whole-genome sequencing (WGS) were performed on 14 clinical S. Thompson strains. Antimicrobial sensitivity tests for 18 antibiotics and bacterial inoculation experiments on one-day-old chicks were conducted. Three conclusions were obtained: 1) The significant decrease in embryo hatching rate in this farm was caused by S. Thompson, which was highly pathogenic to newborn chicks; 2) The 14 clinical S. Thompson strains originated from the same clone, and the colistin (polymyxin B) resistance gene mcr-9 was reported for the first time in S. Thompson; 3) The core-genome multilocus sequence typing of 14 clinical S. Thompson was cgST-12774, consistent with the two strains of S.Thompson from humans in China as reported in the NCBI database.

This work was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (Grant No. 2018YFD0500403) and the Agricultural Science and Technology Innovation Program (Grant No. IFR-06). 

Original link: https://www.mdpi.com/2306-7381/9/7/349  

                            By Xu Fei (xufei@caas.cn)