Preincubation Treatment of Chicken Hatching Eggs Infected with Salmonella pullorum

Abstract

Hatching eggs derived from chickens infected with Salmonella pullorum were subjected to antibiotic treatments prior to incubation. In 11 trials, eggs which had been warmed to 37 C were placed in 5 C solutions of drugs for 30 minutes. In 24 subsequent trials, eggs, suspended in a Traydex machine, were sprayed with solutions of neomycin sulfate for 60, 90, 120, 180, 240, or 300 seconds. On the 22nd day postincubation, a sample of yolk from all eggs, embryos, and chicks was cultured. The effectiveness of the treatment procedures was based on the inability to recover S. pullorum. In the dipping trials, 4800 ppm of neomycin sulfate was of value. In a single trial, 1000 ppm of kanamycin reduced the percentage of eggs from which S. pullorum could be recovered. Ineffective in 3 trials were 1500 ppm of polymyxin B sulfate, and in single trials 750 ppm of furaltadone or 1600 ppm of nalidixic acid. In 20 experiments in which solutions containing 4800 ppm neomycin sulfate were sprayed on the Traydex-suspended eggs, all attempts to isolate S. pullorum were unsuccessful. Lower levels of neomycin sulfate were either ineffective or erratic in efficacy. A spraying time of 60 seconds was adequate.