Salmonella dublin experimental infection in calves: protection after oral immunization with an auxotrophic aroA live vaccine

Salmonella dublin strain SL5631, which is auxotrophic for p-amino-benzoic acid and 2,3-dihydroxybenzoate because of a deleted aroA gene, was given orally in a dose of 10(10) live bacteria to 6 calves 5-7 weeks old. The calves tolerated the strain well, had a transient mucoid diarrhea and sacrificed animals showed a moderate acute inflammation in the ileum on day 2. The salmonella strain was seen lining the mucosal epithelium using immunohistopathology. Already in calves sacrificed on day 6 the damage was less pronounced and signs of regeneration were obvious. The healing process was more accentuated in calves sacrificed on day 14. The results demonstrated the attenuating effect of the deleted aroA gene. Groups of 5-7 weeks old calves (n = 25) orally immunized with 10(8), 10(9) and 10(10) S. dublin SL5631 at weekly intervals were challenged 2, 6 or 15 weeks after the immunization. All calves were protected against oral challenge with 10(10) bacteria of the virulent S. dublin strain, which equals 1,000 LD50 doses. At autopsy, calves were sacrificed 3 weeks after challenge, all calves had normal intestinal findings with only slightly enlarged mesenteric lymph nodes. The protective effect is surmised to involve cell-mediated as well as humoral defense mechanisms.