Bioengineering Novel Bacteriophages to Target Salmonella in Poultry Production

Salmonella is a significant public health threat and economic concern as foodborne illness continues to be an overwhelming challenge in the U.S. Every year, human salmonellosis accounts for the highest number of outbreaks, illnesses, hospitalizations, and the second-highest deaths. Poultry remains the primary source of salmonellosis, accounting for 25% of the outbreaks. While numerous intervention strategies are used in poultry processing to reduceSalmonellapopulations with some success, bacterial burden and transmission duringpre-harvest live bird production remain the primary challenges forSalmonellacontrol. The management practice of 8-12 hour feed withdrawal (FW) prior to transporting broilers to the processing plant in order to reduce fecal contamination appears to be a major contributing factor to increases in Salmonella in flocks entering the processing plant. Our research proposal represents an entirelyinnovativeand radical way of tackling pathogen control with atargeted bioengineering designof a multiple phage population with an optimizedSalmonella-killingimpact that can be administered during FW to reduce most if not allSalmonella serovars and strains.Ourgeneral hypothesisis that bioengineering phages with different Salmonellaattachment sites allow for their maximum and continuous exposure to targetSalmonella and would preventhorizontalSalmonellatransmissionamong birds during FW and transportation to the processing plant, thereby reducing Salmonella prevalence at the processing plant.We plan to execute this proposal with specific objectives:Objective 1- Bioengineer bacteriophages for optimal efficacy againstSalmonellaserovars during FW and establish dosage levels.Objective 2 -Screen the resulting bioengineered phage candidates fromObjective 1against multipleSalmonellaserovars using in vitro crop and cecal incubations.Objective 3- Determine the efficacy ofSalmonellaphage cocktail identified in Objective 2 supplemented in the drinking water of commercial broilers on reducingSalmonellatransmission during FW and Salmonella load at the processing plant.