Salmonella Enteritidis with double deletion in phoPfliC--a potential live Salmonella vaccine candidate with novel characteristics for use in chickens

Salmonella Enteritidis mutants with deletions in phoP, fliC or phoP fliC were tested for their virulence and their ability to induce parameters of the innate and adaptive immunity in addition to their potential for serological differentiation between vaccinated, non-vaccinated and infected chickens. The double phoP fliC deletion mutant was sufficiently attenuated but not diminished in its capability to inhibit the caecal colonisation and systemic invasion of homologous Salmonella Enteritidis shortly after administration of the vaccine strain to very young chicks. Immunisation with the attenuated ΔphoP fliC mutant resulted in protective effects which were only slightly and insignificantly lower than after “immunisation” with a Salmonella wild-type strain, indicating the capability to induce an intense adaptive immune response and protection against Salmonella exposure in older chickens. The deletion in fliC enabled the effective the differentiation between immunised and infected chickens using a commercially available ELISA kit. The double phoP fliC deletion mutant of Salmonella Enteritidis might be a potential and promising live Salmonella vaccine candidate with novel characteristics for use in poultry.