Comparative analysis of intestinal microbial community diversity between healthy and orally infected ducklings with Salmonella enteritidis by ERIC-PCR.

Aim: To analyze the difference of intestinal microbial community diversity between healthy and (S. enteritidis) orally infected ducklings.

Methods: Enterobacterial Repetitive Intergenic Consensus (ERIC)-PCR was applied to analyze the intestinal microbial community diversity and dynamic change including duodenum, jejunum, ileum, cecum and rectum from healthy ducklings and 7-day-old ducklings after oral infection with S. enteritidis at different time points.

Results: The intestinal microbial community of the control healthy ducklings was steady and the ERIC-PCR band numbers of the control healthy ducklings were the least with rectum and were the most with caecum. ERIC-PCR bands of orally inoculated ducklings did not obviously change until 24 h after inoculation (p.i.). The numbers of the ERIC-PCR bands gradually decreased from 24 h to 72 h p.i., and then, with the development of disease, the band numbers gradually increased until 6 d p.i. The prominent bacteria changed because of S. enteritidis infection and the DNAstar of staple of ERIC-PCR showed that aerobe and facultative aerobe (Escherichia coli, Shigella, Salmonella) became preponderant bacilli in the intestine of orally infected ducklings with SE.

Conclusion: This study has provided significant data to clarify the intestinal microbial community diversity and dynamic change of healthy and S. enteritidis orally infected ducklings, and valuable insight into the pathogenesis of S. enteritidis infection in both human and animals.