Salmonella enterica serovar Gallinarum: addressing fundamental questions in bacteriology sixty years on from the 9R vaccine

Sixty years on from Smith's seminal work on Fowl Typhoid vaccines, there is renewed interest in experimental avian salmonellosis and in particular the use of Salmonella enterica serovar Gallinarum as a tool to understand key features of bacterial evolution and host adaptation. In this short review we outline some of the recent advances in avian salmonellosis research that have coupled both the power of whole genome analysis and new tools to understand the host response to existing experimental infection models. These approaches are underpinning a fundamental understanding of Salmonella biology relevant to both the chicken and other avian and mammalian species.