ABSTRACT
Poultry are a major reservoir for food-borne Salmonella enterica serovars, most notably ST, S. Enteritidis (SE), S. Heidelberg, S. Kentucky and S. Senftenberg as the most prevalent serovars in the U.S. poultry (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 2013; Basler et al., 2015). In chickens, infections with host-specific serovars Salmonella Gallinarum and Salmonella Pullorum cause septicaemia and expression of fowl typhoid and pullorum disease, respectively (Shivaprasad and Barrow, 2008), whereas infections with non-hostspecific serovars generally display no clinical signs. In the last decade, significant progress has been made in the knowledge of Salmonella invasion and pathogenesis in mammalian hosts (Santos et al., 2003; Ohl and Miller, 2001; Zhang et al., 2003). However, specific information regarding Salmonella invasion and colonization mechanisms and interactions with host cells of poultry is limited and poorly defined (Cox and Pavic, 2010).
