Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-mwx4w Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-16T21:18:59.864Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The effect on the virulence and infectivity of Salmonella typhimurium and Salmonella gallinarum of acquiring antibiotic resistance plasmids from organisms that had caused serious outbreaks of disease

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 May 2009

H. Williams Smith  and
J. F. Tucker
H. Williams Smith
Affiliation:
Houghton Poultry Research Station, Houghton, Huntingdon Cambs. PE17 2DA
J. F. Tucker
Affiliation:
Houghton Poultry Research Station, Houghton, Huntingdon Cambs. PE17 2DA
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Antibiotic resistance plasmids from organisms that had caused serious epidemics, including those responsible for epidemics of chloramphenicol-resistant typhoid fever and dysentery in Central America, were transferred to a strain of Salmonella typhimurium and of Salmonella gallinarum. The virulence and infectivity of these R+ forms were then compared with the R− parent forms in orally inoculated chickens.

None of the R+ forms were more virulent than their R− parent forms. The mortality rates they produced were either the same as or less than that of their R− parent forms. The mortality rates were not increased by feeding the chickens on diets containing antibiotics against which the plasmids provided resistance.

The removal of the plasmids from some R+ forms of decreased virulence was not accompanied by any alteration in virulence, indicating that they were less virulent mutants of the parent strain that had conjugated preferentially. In other cases their virulence was increased, indicating that the very possession of the plasmid was involved in their decreased virulence. Of four forms of the S. gallinarum strain harbouring the plasmid that had been incriminated in the Central American dysentery outbreak, one was as virulent as the parent R− form and the other three were less virulent. Preferential conjugation by an avirulent mutant was responsible for the lack of virulence of one of them but the very possession of the plasmid appeared responsible for the decreased virulence of the other two. The decreased virulence of de-repressed F+ and I+ forms of the S. typhimurium strain was increased to that of repressed F+ form and of the parent form by plasmid removal.

Organisms of the R+ forms of the S. typhimurium strain were not excreted in larger amounts or for longer periods of time by infected chickens than organisms of the R− parent form were. Neither did organisms of the R+ forms of this strain or the S. gallinarum strain spread more rapidly or more extensively from infected chickens to in-contact chickens than organisms of the R− parent forms did. When antibiotics against which the infecting R+ organisms provided resistance were included in the diet of these chickens the R+ organisms were usually excreted in greater amounts, for longer periods of time and spread more rapidly and more extensively from the infected chickens to the in-contact chickens.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Hygiene , Volume 83 , Issue 2 , October 1979 , pp. 305 - 317
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1979

References

Anderson, E. S. (1968). Drug resistance in Salmonella typhimurium and its implications. British Medical Journal iii, 333–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Anderson, E. S. (1975). The problem and implications of chloramphenicol resistance in the typhoid bacillus. Journal of Hygiene 74, 289–99.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Butler, T., Linh, N. N., Arnold, K. & Pollack, M. (1973). Chloramphenicol-resistant typhoid fever in Vietnam associated with R factor. Lancet ii, 983–5.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davis, J. E., Strauss, J. H. JR. & Sinsheimer, R. L. (1961). Bacteriophage MS2: another RNA phage. Science 134, 1427.Google Scholar
Datta, N. & Olarte, J. (1974). R factors in strains of Salmonella typhi and Shigella dysenteriae 1 isolated during epidemics in Mexico; classification by compatibility. Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy 5, 310–17.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hardy, K. G., Meynell, G. G., Dowman, J. E. & Spratt, B. G. (1973). Two major groups of colicin factors; their evolutionary significance. Molecular and General Genetics 125, 217–30.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kay, D. (1962). The nucleic acid composition of bacteriophage φ R. Journal of General Microbiology 27, 201–7.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lampe, R. M., Mansuwan, P. & Duangmani, C. (1974). Chloramphenicol-resistant typhoid. Lancet i, 623–4.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Meynell, G. G. & Lawn, A. M. (1968). Filamentous phages specific for the I sex factor. Nature, London, 217, 1184–6.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Miles, A. A., Misra, S. S. & Irwin, J. O. (1938). The estimation of the bactericidal power of blood. Journal of Hygiene 38, 732–49.Google Scholar
Mitsuhashi, S. (1971). Epidemiology and genetics of R factors. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 182, 141–52.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Paniker, C. K. J. & Vimala, K. N. (1972). Transferable chloramphenicol resistance in Salmonella typhi. Nature, London, 239, 109–10.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Peluffo, C. A., Irino, K. & Mello, S. (1974). Virulence and multi-resistance to drugs of epidemic Salmonella typhimurium strains isolated in children's hospitals in South America. I. Comparative virulence of epidemic and non-epidemic strains. Memórias do Instituto Butantan 38, 1–12 (in Spanish).Google Scholar
Smith, H. Williams (1955). Observations on experimental fowl typhoid. Journal of Comparative Pathology and Therapeutics 65, 37–54.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Smith, H. Williams (1972). The effect on virulence of transferring R factors to Salmonella typhimurium in vivo. Journal of Medical Microbiology 5, 451–7.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Smith, H. Williams (1974). Thermosensitive transfer factors in chloramphenicol-resistant strains of Salmonella typhi. Lancet ii, 281–2.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thiele, Elizabeth H. (1970). Virulence of R-factor-bearing Salmonella typhimurium. Infection and Immunity 2, 516.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tomoeda, M., Inuzuka, M., Kubo, N. & Nakamara, S. (1968). Effective elimination of drug resistance and sex factors in Escherichia coli by sodium dodecyl sulphate. Journal of Bacteriology 95, 1078–89.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Watanabe, M. (1976). Effect of R factors on the virulence of their host bacteria: virulence for mice of Salmonella typhimurium LT-2 carrying various R factors from naturally occurring Shigella strains. Japanese Journal of Bacteriology 31, 397–407 (in Japanese).Google Scholar
Watanabe, T. (1971). Transferable antibiotic resistance in enterobacteriaceae: relationship to the problems of treatment and control of coliform enteritis. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 176, 371–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Watanabe, T. & Watanabe, M. (1969). Episome resistance factors in Enterobacteriaceae: 38. Virulence for mice of Salmonella typhimurium LT-2 carrying various R factors: Igaku to Seibutsugaku 79, 139–47 (in Japanese).Google Scholar