Passive maternal exposure to environmental microbes selectively modulates the innate defences of chicken egg white by increasing some of its antibacterial activities

Table 1 Growth of six bacterial species in egg white of GF, SPF and conventional hens

Bacterial species	Germ free hens	Specific pathogen free hens	Conventional hens	P value
Staphylococcus aureus**	7.4 ± 0.7 a*	6.4 ± 0.7 b	6.1 ± 0.5 b	<0.001
*Streptococcus uberis*	7.3 ± 0.3 a	5.0 ± 0.6 b	4.7 ± 0.8 b	<0.001
*Listeria monocytogenes*	3.1 ± 0.1	3.0 ± 0.2	3.0 ± 0.1	0.91
*Salmonella* Enteritidis	7.5 ± 0.2	7.7 ± 0.3	7.4 ± 0.2	0.11
*Salmonella* Gallinarum	3.2 ± 0.2	3.3 ± 0.2	3.1 ± 0.1	0.18
*Escherichia coli*	10.6 ± 0.6	10.6 ± 0.6	10.4 ± 0.3	0.48

*mean areas under the growth curves ± standard deviation, n = 10 Means with different letters are different (p < 0.05). Data were analysed using one-way ANOVA followed by the Bonferroni-Dunn test.
**Staphylococcus aureus D8 618.29, Streptococcus uberis 3029C MC, Listeria monocytogenes strain EGDe, Salmonella Gallinarum 229 K and Salmonella enterica. Enteritidis ATCC 13076 were provide d by INRA (Nouzilly) and Avian Escherichia coli CIRMBP-0096 was provided by the International Center of Microbial Resources dedicated to Pathogenic Bacteria (Nouzilly).

ISSN: 1471-2180