Systemic and local cytokine response of young piglets to oral infection with Salmonella enterica serotype typhimurium.

One-week-old breast-fed miniature piglets were orally infected either with virulent LT2 strain or with a non-virulent SF1591 rough mutant of Salmonella Typhimurium for 1 d. Both micro-organisms were cultivated from mesenteric lymph nodes but not from the blood of infected piglets. Interleukins (IL) 1β, 8, 18, tumor necrosis factor α (TNF-α) and interferon γ (IFN-γ) were quantified by ELISA in plasma and washes of a terminal part of the small bowel. In plasma, cytokines were mostly missing in noninfected piglets and either missing or low in infected piglets. In the gut of non-infected piglets, IL-1β, IL-8 and IL-18 were detected whereas TNF-α and IFN-γ were mostly missing. IFN-γ levels highly increased ( p < 0.05) after infection with nonvirulent salmonellae. The variability of cytokine levels in the gut of suckling piglets is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]