Salmonella species are important zoonotic pathogens that cause gastrointestinal disease in humans and animals. Poultry products contaminated with these pathogens are one of the major sources of human Salmonella infections. Vaccination of chickens, along with other intervention measures, is an important strategy that is currently being used to reduce the levels of Salmonella in poultry flocks, which will ultimately lead to lower rates of human Salmonella infections. However, despite numerous studies that have been performed, there is still a need for safer, well-defined Salmonella vaccines. This review examines the different classes of Salmonella vaccines that have been tested, highlighting the merits and problems of each, and provides an insight into the future of Salmonella vaccines and the platforms that can be used for delivery.

Salmonella enterica subsp. enterica serovar Enteritidis is a leading cause of human food-borne illness that is mainly associated with the consumption of contaminated poultry meat and eggs. To cause infection, S. Enteritidis is known to use two type III secretion systems, which are encoded on two salmonella pathogenicity islands, SPI-1 and SPI-2, the first of which is thought to play a major role in invasion and bacterial uptake. In order to study the role of SPI-1 in the colonization of chicken, we constructed deletion mutants affecting the complete SPI-1 region (40 kb) and the invG gene. Both ⌬SPI-1 and ⌬invG mutant strains were impaired in the secretion of SipD, a SPI-1 effector protein. In vitro analysis using polarized human intestinal epithelial cells (Caco-2) revealed that both mutant strains were less invasive than the wild-type strain. A similar observation was made when chicken cecal and small intestinal explants were coinfected with the wild-type and ⌬SPI-1 mutant strains. Oral challenge of 1-week-old chicken with the wild-type or ⌬SPI-1 strains demonstrated that there was no difference in chicken cecal colonization. However, systemic infection of the liver and spleen was delayed in birds that were challenged with the ⌬SPI-1 strain. These data demonstrate that SPI-1 facilitates systemic infection but is not essential for invasion and systemic spread of the organism in chickens.

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Salmonella enterica subspecies enterica serovar Enteritidis (S. Enteritidis) has been identified as a significant cause of salmonellosis in humans. Salmonella pathogenicity islands 1 and 2 (SPI-1 and SPI-2) each encode a specialized type III secretion system (T3SS) that enables Salmonella to manipulate host cells at various stages of the invasion/infection process. For the purposes of our studies we used a chicken isolate of S. Enteritidis (Sal18). In one study, we orally co-challenged 35-day-old specific pathogen-free (SPF) chickens with two bacterial strains per group. The control group received two versions of the wild-type strain Sal18: Sal18 attTn7 : : tet and Sal18 attTn7 : : cat, while the other two groups received the wild-type strain (Sal18 attTn7 : : tet) and one of two mutant strains. From this study, we concluded that S. Enteritidis strains deficient in the SPI-1 and SPI-2 systems were outcompeted by the wild-type strain. In a second study, groups of SPF chickens were challenged at 1 week of age with four different strains: the wild-type strain, and three other strains lacking either one or both of the SPI-1 and SPI-2 regions. On days 1 and 2 post-challenge, we observed a reduced systemic spread of the SPI-2 mutants, but by day 3, the systemic distribution levels of the mutants matched that of the wild-type strain. Based on these two studies, we conclude that the S. Enteritidis SPI-2 T3SS facilitates invasion and systemic spread in chickens, although alternative mechanisms for these processes appear to exist.

Non-typhoidal Salmonella (NTS) strains are Gram negative bacterial pathogens that are associated with foodborne illness worldwide. During the process of infection, Salmonella uses two molecular injectisomes known as Type 3 Secretion Systems (T3SS) to secrete virulence factors that are encoded by Salmonella Pathogenicity Island-1 (SPI-1) and SPI-2 into host cells. These secretion systems play a major role in virulence, as shown in various animal models, but little is known about their role in human infections. In Saudi Arabia, NTS strains frequently cause human infections but data regarding these pathogenic strains is fairly limited. The aim of this study was to characterize Salmonella human clinical isolates in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, by determining their serotype, testing for the presence of SPI-1 and SPI-2 genes and to determine the antibiotic resistance profiles of these strains. Using the rapid Check and Trace Salmonella ™ (CTS) system our results demonstrate that S . Enteritidis and S . Typhimurium were the predominant serovars, followed by S . Livingstone, S . Kentucky and S . Poona among a list of 36 serovars reported for the first time in the country. In addition, SPI-1 genes were detected in 99% of the isolates, while the sifA gene (SPI-2) was not detected in 13.5% of the isolates. These results suggest that both the SPI-1 and SPI-2 virulence determinants are important for human infection. Moreover, we report the presence of a Multi-Drug (MDR) carbapenem resistant S . Kentucky isolate harboring the bla OXA−48 gene not reported previously in Saudi Arabia.