Abstract
BackgroundAvian necrotic enteritis (NE) caused by Clostridium perfringens is a disease with a major economic impact, generating losses estimated to 6 billion of dollars annually for the poultry industry worldwide. The incidence of the disease is particularly on the rise in broiler chicken flocks eliminating the preventive use of antibiotics. To date, no alternative allows for the efficient prevention of NE and a control of the disease using a vaccinal strategy would be mostly prized. For this purpose, comparative and subtractive reverse vaccinology identifying putative immunogenic bacterial surface proteins is one of the most promising approaches.ResultsA comparative genomic study was performed on 16 C. perfringens strains isolated from healthy broiler chickens and from broilers affected with necrotic enteritis. Results showed that the analyzed genomes were composed of 155,700 distinct proteins from which 13% were identified as extracellular, 65% as cytoplasmic and 22% as part of the bacterial membrane. The evaluation of the immunogenicity of these proteins was determined using the prediction software VaxiJen®.ConclusionsFor the most part, proteins with the highest scores were associated with an extracellular localisation. For all the proteins analyzed, the combination of both the immunogenicity score and the localisation prediction led to the selection of 12 candidate proteins that were mostly annotated as hypothetical proteins. We describe 6 potential candidates of higher interest due to their antigenic potential, their extracellular localisation, and their possible role in virulence of C. perfringens.
Highlights
Avian necrotic enteritis (NE) caused by Clostridium perfringens is a disease with a major economic impact, generating losses estimated to 6 billion of dollars annually for the poultry industry worldwide
As part of the initiatives undertaken by the food-producing animal industries in Canada, the Chicken Farmers of Canada (CFC) is currently implementing its national antimicrobial use reduction strategy (AMU strategy) which main objective consists in a gradual elimination of the preventive use of antimicrobials under the first three categories of antibiotics defined as important for human health by Health Canada (Table 1) [3]
In 2006, the European Union countries banned the use of antibiotic growth promoters, which, based on the results of field studies conducted in Canada, will most likely be associated with the re-emergence of necrotic enteritis (NE) that had been kept under control with the historical routine use of antibiotics [4, 5]
Summary
Avian necrotic enteritis (NE) caused by Clostridium perfringens is a disease with a major economic impact, generating losses estimated to 6 billion of dollars annually for the poultry industry worldwide. No alternative allows for the efficient prevention of NE and a control of the disease using a vaccinal strategy would be mostly prized. For this purpose, comparative and subtractive reverse vaccinology identifying putative immunogenic bacterial surface proteins is one of the most promising approaches. As part of the initiatives undertaken by the food-producing animal industries in Canada, the Chicken Farmers of Canada (CFC) is currently implementing its national antimicrobial use reduction strategy (AMU strategy) which main objective consists in a gradual elimination of the preventive use of antimicrobials under the first three categories of antibiotics defined as important for human health by Health Canada (Table 1) [3]. None of these approaches have shown promise in the successful replacement of antimicrobials
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
