{"id":103263,"date":"2025-10-27T10:10:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-27T10:10:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/103263\/"},"modified":"2025-10-27T10:10:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-27T10:10:09","slug":"diverse-threats-posed-by-avian-e-coli","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/103263\/","title":{"rendered":"Diverse threats posed by avian E. coli"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"AvianAvian Pathogenic E. coli, or simply APEC, is an extra-intestinal subgroup of pathogenic Escherichia coli that can cause disease in susceptible poultry, most commonly leading to clinical colibacillosis.<\/p>\n

New research from the University of Surrey<\/a> and University of Bristol<\/a>, in collaboration with Poultry Health Services<\/a>, has determined why various strains of APEC behave so differently.<\/p>\n

E. coli bacteria are typically harmless, but certain strains, known as avian pathogenic Escherichia coli (APEC), can cause serious illness in poultry, leading to significant financial losses and animal welfare issues.<\/p>\n

The study, published in\u00a0Virulence,<\/a>\u00a0analysed a colibacillosis outbreak in turkeys in the UK, and found that a strain called ST-101 was the dominant cause of the outbreak, accounting for nearly 60% of cases. This strain of APEC had not been previously reported as the primary cause of a turkey outbreak in the UK.<\/p>\n

ALSO READ: Understanding biofilms in poultry drinking water lines<\/a><\/p>\n

Strains better at invading and surviving<\/p>\n

By comparing ST-101 to a variety of high-risk APEC strains, the team from Surrey, led by Dr Jai Mehat, Dr James Adams, and Professor Roberto La Ragione, found that the ST-101, ST-95 and ST-140 strains were found to be better at invading and surviving inside chicken gut cells and immune cells (macrophages) compared to the ST-23 and ST-117 strains.<\/p>\n

However, despite being less effective at invading cells, the ST-117 strain was found to be the most lethal in an insect model of infection, suggesting that different strains cause disease differently.<\/p>\n

A one-size-fits-all approach is ineffective <\/p>\n

Dr Jai Mehat, senior author of the study and lecturer in molecular bacteriology at the University of Surrey, said, \u201cOur research shows that a one-size-fits-all approach to controlling avian pathogenic E. coli (APEC) infections is not effective. Current vaccination strategies often target specific strains, but they may not protect against emerging APEC threats. Therefore, we need to develop new vaccines that can target a variety of APEC strains.\u201d<\/p>\n

ALSO READ: Prevalence of Salmonella in UK eggs remains well controlled<\/a><\/p>\n

Professor Shahriar Behboudi, co-author and professor in correlates of immune protection at the University of Bristol, said, \u201cWe extrapolate that broad-spectrum control measures, including the induction of trained immunity in chickens to control diverse strains, offer more effective protection, as current vaccines typically target specific strains and may fail against emerging APEC threats.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr Sara Perez, co-author and clinical director at Poultry Health Services, said: \u201cInfections caused by APEC are a foremost threat to farmed\u00a0poultry. Increasing our surveillance of poultry flocks to better understand the presence and evolution of APEC strains, will ensure our animals\u2019 welfare, and as a result, the safety of our food.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"Mcdougal\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Avian Pathogenic E. coli, or simply APEC, is an extra-intestinal subgroup of pathogenic Escherichia coli that can cause…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":103264,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[75178,134,111,139,69],"class_list":{"0":"post-103263","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-apec","9":"tag-health","10":"tag-new-zealand","11":"tag-newzealand","12":"tag-nz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103263","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103263"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103263\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/103264"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}