Abstract
The zoonotic pathogen Salmonella enterica serotype Enteritidis (SE) causes severe disease in young chickens. Restriction on antibiotic use requires alternative SE control strategies such as nutritional solutions to improve the resistance of chickens. In this study, chickens were fed long-chain glucomannan (GM) or standard diet and challenged with SE at seven days of age. During 21 days post-infection (dpi), we determined numbers and responsiveness of natural killer (NK) and T cells in ileum and spleen, and SE-specific antibody titers in serum. Microbiota compositions in ileum and caeca were determined, as well as correlations of these with numbers and function of immune cells. Some of the samples in the control group had numerically higher CFUs than the GM-treated group. In addition, the relative abundance of SE based on DNA assessment was significantly lower at 21 dpi upon GM supplementation. At 3 dpi, numbers of intraepithelial NK cells were significantly higher, while activation of intraepithelial NK cells (7 dpi), numbers of intraepithelial cytotoxic CD8+ T cells (14 dpi) and SE-specific antibodies (14 dpi) were numerically higher. Furthermore, relative abundance of the commensal lactic acid bacteria (LAB) significantly increased with GM supplementation post-infection. Higher relative abundance of streptococci was associated with reduced SE in ileal and caecal contents at 21 dpi. Relative abundance of streptococci negatively correlated with SE counts and positively correlated with NK cell activation and SE-specific antibodies, which suggests involvement of the commensal LAB in NK cell responsiveness. These results indicate that GM supplementation modulates the immune system, intestinal microbiota and impacts SE infection of young chickens.