Caracterisation phenotypique et genotypique d'isolats de Salmonella Typhimurium provenant de porcs sains ou septicemiques

Salmonella Typhimurium infections represent an important threat both to the swine industry and public health since pig is also a reservoir for human infections. Multiresistance to antimicrobial agents is often associated with S. Typhimurium belonging to phage type (PT) 104, and these isolates can cause septicemia in fattening pigs. It is thus necessary to control the infection at the herd level to avoid meat contamination by these isolates. However, in order to develop more efficacious control measures, it is important to characterize isolates, better understand the pathogenesis of infection and identify virulence factors.;Isolates of S. Typhimurium associated with septicemia in swine (CS) were compared to isolates recovered from healthy animals at slaughterhouses (WCS). The phage type of each isolate was identified and these isolates were characterized by antimicrobial resistance, SDS-PAGE and immunoblotting, and PFGE. Among the CS isolates, PT 104 represented 36.4% of isolates while it represented 51.5% of WCS isolates. Resistance to as many as twelve antimicrobial agents was found in isolates from CS and WCS. However, it was not possible to associate any particular protein to septicemic isolates. Multiple genetic profiles were identified among the isolates of PT 104.;Different steps of the pathogenesis of Salmonella infection were evaluated, in particularly the ability to adhere to and invade intestinal epithelial cell lines by CS and WCS isolates. The isolates recovered from diseased animals invaded intestinal epithelial cell lines at a higher rate than isolates from healthy pigs (P=0.003). Some isolates were selected according to their invasion rate and some analysis, using flow cytometry were done to evaluate phagocytosis, induction of apoptosis, and adhesion to intestinal mucus. The survival in monocytes was evaluated and the MATS method was used to evaluate the bacterial surface properties, measuring interactions with solvents. Isolates from WCS were more phagocytized than isolates from CS at 15 minutes (P=0.02). We found no significant difference for the other methods used.;Using SSH, we also compared the genome of a CS isolate (;The main objective of this study was to characterize isolates of S. Typhimurium associated with septicemia in swine and to compare them to isolates recovered from healthy pigs.;Our work suggests that isolates from septicemic pigs may be distinguished from isolates from healthy pigs by their better ability to invade intestinal cells as well as by a lower rate of phagocytosis in the early steps of infection. This study increased our knowledge on the pathogeny of S. Typhimurium infection in pigs.;Keywords. Salmonella Typhimurium; swine; septicemia; characterization; invasion; phagocytosis; plasmid.