Phage therapy reduces transport and lairage-associated Salmonella infections in market weight swine

Samantha K Wall, Purdue University

Abstract

Salmonella is a major food safety concern throughout the world. Salmonella outbreaks are usually foodborne and are associated with contaminated meat, poultry, and dairy products. Along with other livestock, Salmonella is associated with swine. Once infected, pigs can shed Salmonella for weeks to months and often shed the organism in increased quantities in response to transport and lairage. This is highly problematic in terms of food safety as it serves to amplify the concentration of pathogenic bacteria that enters the processing facility. The central hypothesis of this manuscript was that phage therapy could be developed as a means to reduce transport and lairage associated increases in Salmonella infections in pigs. Phage therapy is the use of phage to reduce bacterial infections and may be ideally suited for use as a pre-harvest, anti-Salmonella intervention strategy as the viruses are very specific and naturally occurring. To test this hypothesis, wild-type, anti-Salmonella phage were isolated from the environment. The phage cocktail used to reduce Salmonella infections was tested in different types of pigs under various conditions. In each case, phage therapy was able to reduce Salmonella counts in various parameters. The phage cocktail also proved effective at lysing varied Salmonella serovars. The implications of these studies and several proposed future experiments are discussed.

Degree

M.S.

Advisors

Ebner, Purdue University.

Subject Area

Animal sciences

COinS