Assessing competitive inhibition of pathogenic Enterococcus cecorum by avirulent strains

Pathogenic Enterococcus cecorum (EC) continues to plague the broiler industry, causing mortality from pericarditis and sepsis early in the growing period and lameness and paralysis late in the growing period. As gut colonization is a necessary first step in EC infection, it is a potential target for intervention. If EC can be excluded from the gut, systemic EC infection could be diminished. USPOULTRY and its foundation recently published a final report that tested the ability of avirulent deletion mutants and commensal EC strains to disrupt gut colonization by pathogenic EC.