Abstract
Necrotic enteritis is a serious economical disease of poultry caused by Clostridium perfringens. NetB toxin of Clostridium perfringens is considered the causative agent of necrotic enteritis. Following the withdrawal of in-feed antibiotic growth promoters, there has been an urgent need to develop alternative approaches such as vaccination. Currently, there are no commercially available vaccines to control necrotic enteritis especially in broiler chickens as the target population. In the present study, we constructed a recombinant Lactobacillus casei strain expressing NetB protein of C. perfringens on the cell surface and used this probiotic-based vaccine strain to immunize broiler chickens orally against experimental induction of necrotic enteritis. The birds immunized with the oral vaccine strain were significantly protected against necrotic enteritis challenge and developed strong serum anti-NetB antibody responses to NetB protein. Furthermore, the immunized birds showed higher body weight gains during the challenge experiment compared with control birds. This study showed, for the first time, that a probiotic-based vector vaccine could be a promising vaccine candidate to provide protection against necrotic enteritis in broiler chickens.
Keypoints
• The probiotic L. casei carrying pT1NX-netB plasmid displayed NetB antigen on the cell surface.
• The LC-NetB vaccine strain induced high anti-toxin antibody response in broiler chickens.
• The LC-NetB vector vaccine provided significant protection against experimental NE challenge.
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Data availability
Data and materials described in this study are available from the authors upon reasonable request and availability.
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Thanks to everyone who helped us in the past 2 years.
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This work was supported by the Research Council of Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman, Kerman, Iran.
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MAS performed all aspects of the experiments, conceived and designed the animal trials, analyzed and interpreted the data, and authored the initial draft of the manuscript. MG conceived and designed all the aspects of experiments, assisted in the data interpretation, drafted and revised the manuscript, and supervised the project. EM assisted in vaccine preparation and ELISA studies. All the authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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All the animal experiments were assessed and approved by the Research Ethics Committees of Faculty of Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman (Code: IR.UK.VETMED. REC. 1400.007).
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Shamshirgaran, M.A., Golchin, M. & Mohammadi, E. Lactobacillus casei displaying Clostridium perfringens NetB antigen protects chickens against necrotic enteritis. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 106, 6441–6453 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-022-12155-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-022-12155-y