An Investigation into Host Genetic Resistance to Campylobacter Colonisation in Poultry

Campylobacter is an intestinal commensal of poultry flocks and a major food-borne pathogen in man. Differences in the level of cloacal colonisation by C. jejuni have been found in the IAH inbred lines of chickens after challenge on the day-of-hatch, with line 6(1) being relatively resistant and line N relatively sensitive. <P>
These differences will be characterised further by quantitative measurement of Campylobacter in caeca and other tissues. Genetic crosses segregating the differences will be established and analysed with microsatellite markers covering the chicken genome. High resolution comparative maps will be constructed across genomic regions identified as conferring resistance and used, together with database mining, to select positional candidates. These will be sequenced in resistant and susceptible chicken lines.