The effect of enterocin A/P dipeptide on growth performance, glutathione-peroxidase activity, IgA secretion and jejunal morphology in rabbits after experimental methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus epidermidis P3Tr2a Infection

The increasing frequency of methicillin-resistant (MR) staphylococci in humans and animals need special attention for their difficult treatment and zoonotic character, therefore novel antimicrobial compounds on a natural base against antibiotic-resistant bacteria are requested. Currently, bacteriocins/enterocins present a new promising way to overcome this problem, both in prevention and treatment. Therefore, the preventive and medicinal effect of dipeptide enterocin EntA/P was evaluated against MR Staphylococcus epidermidis SEP3/Tr2a strain in a rabbit model, testing their influence on growth performance, glutathione-peroxidase (GPx) enzyme activity, phagocytic activity (PA), secretory (s)IgA, and jejunal morphometry (JM). Eighty-eight rabbits (aged 35 days, meat line M91, both sexes) were divided into experimental groups S (SEP3/Tr2a strain; 1.0 × 10 5 CFU/mL; dose 500µL/animal/day for 7 days, between days 14 and 21 to simulate the pathogen attack), E (EntA/P; 50 µL/animal/day, 25,600 AU/mL in two intervals, for preventive effect between days 0 and 14; for medicinal effect between days 28 and 42), E + S (EntA/P + SEP3/Tr2a; preventive effect; SEP3/Tr2a + EntA/P; medicinal effect) and control group (C; without additives). Higher body weight was recorded in all experimental groups ( p