The effect of feeding diets containing permitted antibiotics on the faecal excretion of Salmonella typhimurium by experimentally infected chickens

Abstract

SUMMARY: Groups of 45 chickens were fed continuously on diets containing 10 or 100mg./kg. of different ‘growth-promoting’ antibiotics and infected orally with a nalidixic acid-resistant mutant of Salmonella typhimurium. The amount of S. typhimurium organisms excreted in their faeces was estimated by culturing them at weekly intervals and in a standard manner on plates of brilliant green agar containing sodium nalidixate, both direct and after enrichment in selenite broth.All of four groups fed diets containing 100 mg./kg. of nitrovin in three different experiments excreted much larger amounts of S. typhimurium than did groups fed antibiotic-free diets. In some, but not all, experiments, larger amounts were also excreted by groups fed diets containing 10 mg./kg. of nitrovin or 10 or 100 mg./kg. of flavomycin or tylosin. Feeding diets containing 10 or 100 mg./kg. of virginiamycin or bacitracin either did not influence or slightly ncreased the amount of S. typhimurium excreted.Two groups fed continuously on diets containing 100 or 500 mg./kg. of sulphaquinoxaline for 44 days excreted smaller amounts of the S. typhimurium organisms than did groups fed antibiotic-free diets; no sulphonamide-resistant organisms of the S. typhimurium strain were isolated from the faeces.