Characterization of streptococci and enterococci associated with septicaemia in broiler parents with a high prevalence of endocarditis

Increased mortality due to septicaemia, where 29% of the affected birds had developed valvular endocarditis, was observed in a flock of broiler parents affected by myelocytomatosis. Bacterial investigations resulted in isolation of streptococci, the classification of which was unknown according to present taxonomy. Strains were isolated from the liver, spleen, heart and salpinx in clinical cases of septicaemia from the affected flock of Ross broiler parents aged between 26 and 56 weeks. Phenotypic characterization followed by genotypic investigation by ribotyping with HindIII and pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) with SmaI demonstrated three ribotypes and six different PFGE profile types, respectively. Ribotype A with variant A1, together with the PFGE profile type represented by the three subtypes la, Ib and Ic, dominated the outbreak constituting 85% of the strains investigated, indicating clonality. 16S rRNA sequencing of strains representing this genotype demonstrated the occurrence of a recently described new Streptococcus sp., Streptococcus grallinaceus. Sequence analysis of the other genotypes demonstrated in the outbreak, resulted in identical 16S rRNA sequences to the type strain of Enterococcus faecalis. S. gallinaceus appears to represent a new opportunistic pathogen within the poultry industry.