June 13, 2007

New research topples prevailing views on cause of chicken disease

An Australian scientist says his research has toppled the widely held belief that one of the bacteria strains was responsible for a common chicken disease that costs the poultry industry US$2 billion each year.

For more than 30 years, alpha-toxin was believed to have been one of the five types of C. perfringens bacteria that was believed to cause necrotic enteritis, a gut disease in chickens.

Anthony Keyburn at Australia's Monash University presented his research on 17 May, 2007, at the Cooperative Research Centres Association Conference.

Clostridium perfringens is a bacterium found at low levels in the intestine of healthy birds, and was believed to be the cause of Necrotic enteritis, by transforming from a non-toxin producing type to a toxin producing type.

Keyburn said his study provided the first definitive evidence that alpha-toxin is not an essential virulence factor of the disease.

To investigate alpha-toxin's influence on the disease, Anthony Keyburn constructed a bacterial strain that does not have this toxin. The team found that it was still able to cause the disease in chickens.

The Poultry CRC is funding a follow-up project to open the way for the development of vaccines to combat the disease.