Review
Genetic control of resistance to salmonellosis and to Salmonella carrier-state in fowl: a review
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* Corresponding author: Fanny Calenge Fanny.Calenge@tours.inra.fr
1 INRA, UR83 Unité de Recherches Avicoles (URA), 37380 Nouzilly, France
2 Institute for Animal Health, Compton, Berkshire RG20 7NN, UK
3 INRA, UMR0444 Laboratoire de Génétique Cellulaire (LGC), 31326 Auzeville, France
4 Roslin Institute and R(D)SVS, University of Edinburgh, Midlothian EH25 9RG, UK
Genetics Selection Evolution 2010, 42:11 doi:10.1186/1297-9686-42-11
Published: 29 April 2010Abstract
Salmonellosis is a frequent disease in poultry stocks, caused by several serotypes of the bacterial species Salmonella enterica and sometimes transmitted to humans through the consumption of contaminated meat or eggs. Symptom-free carriers of the bacteria contribute greatly to the propagation of the disease in poultry stocks. So far, several candidate genes and quantitative trait loci (QTL) for resistance to carrier state or to acute disease have been identified using artificial infection of S. enterica serovar Enteritidis or S. enterica serovar Typhimurium strains in diverse genetic backgrounds, with several different infection procedures and phenotypic assessment protocols. This diversity in experimental conditions has led to a complex sum of results, but allows a more complete description of the disease. Comparisons among studies show that genes controlling resistance to Salmonella differ according to the chicken line studied, the trait assessed and the chicken's age. The loci identified are located on 25 of the 38 chicken autosomal chromosomes. Some of these loci are clustered in several genomic regions, indicating the possibility of a common genetic control for different models. In particular, the genomic regions carrying the candidate genes TLR4 and SLC11A1, the Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC) and the QTL SAL1 are interesting for more in-depth studies. This article reviews the main Salmonella infection models and chicken lines studied under a historical perspective and then the candidate genes and QTL identified so far.