A potential vaccine to prevent the colonisation of the chicken's gut by Campylobacter jejuni, administered subcutaneously, has been successfully tested by researchers at Ohio State University.

Numerous vaccination strategies have been evaluated to develop effective vaccines against C. jejuni colonisation in poultry but with limited success, according to T. Annamalai and colleagues.

In a paper in Poultry Science recently, they describe a series of experiments to investigate the effect of biodegradable and biocompatible poly (lactide-co-glycolide) nanoparticle (NP) encapsulated outer membrane proteins (OMP) of C. jejuni. Chickens were vaccinated with different routes - subcutaneous (s/c) or oral - and doses (25, 125 or 250µg) of candidate nanoparticle vaccine with appropriate control groups. Serum and cloacal fecal samples were taken at regular intervals of time, and the birds were euthanised seven days post-challenge with C. jejuni.

The results were interpreted based on anti-OMP immunoglobulin response in chicken and intestinal colonisation of C. jejuni.

The C. jejuni colonisation in caecal and cloacal contents at seven days post-challenge was below the detection limit in the s/c vaccinated groups, but the other groups demonstrated varying degrees of colonisation.

Serum IgA was higher in the group vaccinated s/c with OMP only compared with the other groups.

Serum- and faecal-IgY titres were consistently higher in the s/c vaccinated groups - with or without NP - than the other treatments.

Elevated levels of OMP specific serum antibodies correlated with below the limit of detection levels of Campylobacter colonisation in broiler chickens receiving 125μg of OMP alone and the OMP+NP vaccine s/c.

In conclusion, the s/c route of vaccination with or without NP encapsulated OMP of C. jejuni may serve as a candidate vaccine for control of C. jejuni colonisation in chickens.

Reference

^{Annamalai T., R. Pina-Mimbela, A. Kumar, B. Binjawadagi, Z. Liu, G.J. Renukaradhya and G. Rajashekara. 2013. Evaluation of nanoparticle-encapsulated outer membrane proteins for the control of Campylobacter jejuni colonization in chickens. Poult. Sci. 92(8):2201-2211. doi: 10.3382/ps.2012-03004}